Fake news: Seek forgiveness from Nigerians, PDP advises APC, FG

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to seek forgiveness from Nigerians for purveying fake news in the country.

The party in a statement issued by Kola Ologbodiyan, its National Publicity Secretary, in Abuja on Sunday, said the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, “should lead the government and his APC to do the needful, instead of the lame attempts at whitewashing the government and his party, even when Nigerians know that they are behind the escalation of fake news in Nigeria.”

The statement added: “Nigerians are aware that the phenomenon of fake news exploded to the current frightening proportion in Nigeria due to the desperation of the APC, whose spokespersons deliberately promoted outright lies, hate speech, insults and threats of violence as tools to gain political power, during the run-up to the 2015 general elections.

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“The APC and its officials literarily fouled our media space by deliberately entrenching falsehood, fabrications, uncouth language and abuses as “acceptable’ modes of engagement, particularly in the social media.

“The APC and the Buhari Federal Government misled and have been misleading the media and the public by stating outright lies, half-truths and fabrications in their statements and claims about governance, individuals and the opposition.

“Nigerians are witnesses to several false performance claims by the APC-led Federal Government including phony political cumming economic recovery and infrastructure development claims, which they project to be factual, even when the reality points to the contrary.

“Recently, the APC purveyed fake news in its declaration of President Buhari as winner of APC presidential primary with fictitious 14.8 million votes, even when there was no contest and no ballot cast.

“The deliberate deployment of fake news by the APC in its attempt to smear the PDP and its members, ended up demarketing our country in the international arena and eroded the confidence the world had on our markets and business concerns, resulting in the current dearth of investments, collapse of businesses, job losses and drop in national productivity.

“The APC should be remorseful and realize that their use of fake news has devastated our economic, political and social development by triggering fear, public panic and uncertainty; disrupting production, distribution and marketing chains and weakening foreign and local investors’ confidence in our system.”

The PDP, therefore, counseled the Minister of Information and Culture, the Buhari Presidency and the APC to immediately apologise to Nigerians for purveying fake news and discontinue their shameless enterprise of beguiling the unsuspecting public with impunity.

The PDP cautioned Nigerians to be “wary of the APC and identified beguilers in the Buhari administration who have have been fully mobilised to commence the release of fictional and false performance indices with a view to swaying Nigerians ahead of 2019 general elections.”