Fake News: No limit to opposition’s absurdity ― Lai Mohammed

THE Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed has alleged that the opposition will go any length at fabricating “ludicrous and fake stories,” to discredit the government ahead of 2019 elections.

The minister made the allegation in Kaduna when he paid a courtesy visit to the state Governor Nasir el-Rufai on the sideline of the 47th Meeting of the National Council on Information, holding in the state capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports states Commissioner of Information, Heads of federal information parastatal agencies and other stakeholder attended the meeting with the theme, “Fighting Fake News and Hate Speech to Enhance and National Unity.”

Mohammed said the opposition had engaged consultants whose main job is to turn out fake news at the interval to discredit President Muhammadu Buhari and the Administration.

                                ALSO READ: Hate speech had no place in Christianity —Oladele

He cited the examples of “idiotic story of cloning of the President,” alleged frozen of the PDP Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and arrest of the son of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the opposition’s Presidential candidate.

The minister who described the story and allegations as fake said they were parts of opposition’s strategies to discredit the government and the President to win the sympathy of voters ahead of the 2019 election.

He said the opposition resulted in fake news because they were intimidated by the achievements of the Buhari administration and could not engage them in the issue-based debate.

He listed some of the achievements in the areas of improving the economy, fighting corruption and insecurity and building infrastructure.

Mohammed charged the states to complement the efforts of the federal government in the fighting fake news and hate speech.

In a remark, the governor said the theme of the Council was apt and topical adding that Kaduna was happy to host the meeting being the state most affected by fake news.

He charged the participants to come up with a strong recommendation that would help in stamping out fake news and hate speech.