Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has debunked a statement online attributed to him claiming that he has “accumulated enough money to never be broke again”.
He also alerted members of the public to the ongoing campaigns of misinformation against his person.
In a statement issued on Monday, Bolaji Tunji, the Minister’s Special Adviser on Strategic Communications and Media Relations, Adelabu said there was no occasion public or private where the Minister made such remarks.
He stressed that the claim was aimed at misleading the public and damaging his reputation.
He noted that the statement did not emanate from the Minister and should be disregarded in its entirety.
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The Minister further described the publication as part of a growing pattern of coordinated misinformation targeted at the Minister.
According to him, the false claim is coming on the heels of a recently circulated “resignation letter” by the Minister, which has also been exposed as fake.
The Minister said both incidents point to a calculated campaign of calumny designed to discredit the Minister.
“This is not an isolated attack. It is part of a sustained effort to malign the person and office of the Honourable Minister through the spread of fake news and deliberate falsehoods,” he said.
The Minister linked the wave of disinformation to his rising political profile, particularly his reported interest in contesting the governorship seat in Oyo State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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He argued that the intensified attacks were driven by political interests threatened by his growing influence.
While urging the public to disregard the false reports, the Minister called on Nigerians to rely on verified and credible sources of information, warning against the dangers of spreading unverified content.