On February 20, 2023, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) issued a statement that it had discovered a website spreading false and malicious information about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling APC. The website address is www.Igbotimesmagazine.online, and the Director of Media and Publicity of the council, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in the statement.
According to the campaign council, the website disseminated fake news claiming that some EFCC operatives, on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari, raided Tinubu’s “underground home” and found N400 billion of the new naira notes. The EFCC has since released a statement disclaiming the report as false. The council’s investigation traced the website to the Labour Party (LP), as it appears to have links with the party on Twitter and Facebook.
The platform has also spread other fake news, including one that alleged that the Federal Government planned to borrow money from kidnappers in Kaduna because they have more money than the country, and it credited this misleading news to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture.
The APC PCC advised Nigerians to be cautious of news emanating from the website and its social media handles. It further stated that more of such sites would surface as some candidates become desperate to win at all costs, and they will shun all decent norms and rules to fulfil some rogue and rigged opinion polls by ANAP Foundation and Nextier.
The council noted that the website existed to mislead and misinform the public and disseminate malicious information on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the opposition candidates, including Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are bound to lose the upcoming February 25 election. The council urged security agencies to identify the people behind the website, who are recklessly spreading fake news before further damage is done to the polity.
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