How fake news tricked my wife to thinking I stood with strippers — Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has narrated recent encounter he had with his wife, Dolapo, consequent upon a piece of fake news which wrongly presented him to the public.

Lamenting the situation, Osinbajo, while speaking at a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) symposium on fake news tagged, “Nigeria 2019: Countering Fake News,” on Wednesday in Abuja, said a blog posted a picture depicting him posing with strippers.

Shedding light on the matter, Osinbajo said he had indeed taken a picture with the women at an entertainment event and were fully clothed, it was found out that the blogger posted the photo where the women were not fully clothed and wrongly presented it to the public.

The Vice-President, who observed that fake news is as old as communication must, said it must be effectively tackled as it could cause violence and destroy lives.

Osinbajo recounts the experience: “I have been one of the targets of fake news. It can also sometimes cause you marital peace. I got a call from my wife about three or four weeks ago and she said Yemi what are you doing with strippers and I said what do you mean by strippers? So, I read a story in a famous blog that said, ‘Osinbajo caught with strippers.’

“And there was a photograph of me sitting between two perfectly clothed ladies but underneath this picture, the same ladies were not wearing much.

“In fact-checking (I noticed that) the photographs with these two ladies at an entertainment event were taken when they were perfectly clothed but by the time the story was put out, it was as though I had taken a photo with them at the time they were not clothed at all.

“As it turns out, I wasn’t in the picture of where they were not wearing clothes but just the caption, the stories and all that gave the impression that here I was in the company of these ladies at a point when they were doing their business. I think the capacity of fake news to cause great harm is not in doubt at all.”