The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has expressed concern over an alleged scheme by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to disseminate fake news aimed at defaming its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, just weeks before the upcoming election. The campaign council claims that a dedicated team has been established at the PDP headquarters in Abuja, working tirelessly to execute this plan.
In a statement released on Sunday and signed by Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Campaign Council, it was stated that the main opposition party has also enlisted numerous social media actors to conduct this smear campaign indirectly. The statement highlighted that the APC has uncovered a plot intended to manipulate public perception, particularly among Northerners, to portray Tinubu negatively. This, they argue, is the PDP’s strategy to salvage its faltering presidential campaign ahead of the February 25 election.
The APC Campaign Council emphasized the need to alert Nigerians about this malicious plan, which they believe could incite disharmony, ill-will, and unnecessary crises, potentially leading to security issues in the country. They accused the PDP and its hired social media influencers of already beginning their campaign by using spoofed and parody accounts of well-known newspapers and blogs to spread false information, aiming to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians.
Furthermore, the APC alleges that part of the PDP’s tactics includes making false claims and allegations against President Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima, and other APC leaders. They assert that the PDP is resorting to manipulated videos, doctored audio, and altered images to win the election by any means necessary. In a conversation with a correspondent, Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, countered these accusations. He questioned the source of the rumors and suggested that if the APC were confident in their integrity, they would not be so concerned. Abdullahi dismissed the claims as unfounded, asserting that the PDP is not aware of any such plans and that similar tactics have been used against their own presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
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