Tinubu Campaign Organisation tells Peter Obi to ask his supporters to stop spreading false news about their man

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has urged his Labour Party opponent Peter Obi to caution his supporters spreading malicious lies about him as the election campaign heats up.

Next February, Nigeria goes to the polls in what is now looking like a three-horse race between Asiwaju Tinubu, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi and ex-vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). With the political temperature rising on a daily basis, the APC appears to be feeling the heat, as its man is constantly portrayed as a sick and tired old man unfit for office.

Calling on Governor Obi to rein in his supporters, Bayo Onanuga, the Tinubu Campaign Organisation (TCO) spokesman, said the Labour Party candidate should allow the election to be about issues that will advance the growth, progress and stability of the country. He said Governor Obi's followers should desist from spreading lies and malice and denigrating other candidates.

Mr Onanuga said: “The TCO further states that Nigeria will be better for it and the electoral process will be enriched if the 2023 presidential campaign sticks to issues of good governance that will lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty rather than being dominated by the ravings of guttersnipes, who do not wish the country well."

He noted that the Tinubu Campaign Organisation saw the need to appeal to Governor Obi to rein in his supporters after investigating the origin of the fake report claiming that the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo wrote a letter to Asiwaju Tinubu, asking him to support Peter Obi and take care of his health. President Akufo-Addo has since debunked the news as a product of deliberate mischief with the intent to deceive the public.

Taking to Twitter, President Akufo-Addo said: “I have written no such letter to the APC leader and it will not occur to me to do so. Ghana and Nigeria boast of decades of cordial, strong and brotherly relations and I am not going to be the one to interfere in the internal affairs and politics of Nigeria.”

Mr Onanuga said “A content analysis of the site clearly showed that it is a Biafra news platform. The fake news was reposted on Facebook by the Peter Obi Support Group on the same day, clear proof that Biafra campaigners and Peter Obi supporters are the same.

“Both the Facebook account and the website are replete with fake stories about Bola Tinubu, including a fake story credited to former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, alleging that Tinubu demanded N50bn monthly payment from him. The spuriousness of the statement is in the evidence that Lagos did not begin to clock N50bn revenue until after Ambode left office.

“Tinubu could not have demanded N50bn monthly payment from Ambode when the state government didn’t make such in a month throughout the tenure of Mr Ambode. The pirate website, which the Facebook account feeds, on also parades malicious fake news and headlines such as “I am old, but my blood is young, please vote for me – Tinubu begs youth” .

“There is also the most wicked of all headlines, which says when I became president, I will build more prisons for Igbo’s and Ipob members. The big surprise in all of this is that all the headlines have no supporting stories and clicking them may bring a virus to your computer.

“We have come to a point where it becomes imperative to tell Mr Obi to show leadership and disavow his supporters who are employing fake news and disinformation as deliberate tools to deceive and poison the minds of unsuspecting Nigerians."