Report On ‘Tinubu’s Old Naira Notes Loaded In Trucks’ Sponsored By PDP, Says APC

The All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council has accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party of sponsoring fake news against its candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a bid to de-market him ahead of the February 25 presidential election.

According to the APC PCC, the opposition party has perfected and commenced a campaign of calumny against Tinubu using paid social media influencers operating from the party’s Wadata House headquarters in Abuja.

Part of the plan, according to the ruling party, is to manipulate mostly “Northerners to see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in bad light”.

Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity of APC campaign, who made the claims in a statement on Sunday, said the hired influencers have already cloned social media accounts of some newspapers to carry out their mission

He said a fake report on the alleged interception of old Naira notes belonging to Tinubu was circulated by the influencers on Saturday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had recently redesigned the country’s currency and fixed a deadline for the swap of the old notes with new ones in efforts to force people warehousing illicit and stolen funds in their homes to return them to the banking system.

Onanuga said, “We want to alert Nigerians to the sinister moves and orchestrated plans of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to unleash a wave of fake news especially in Hausa language to malign, defame and delegitimise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC before Nigerians.

“This scurrilous campaign by the PDP has already been perfected with a dedicated team working day and night from the PDP national headquarters at Wadata House, Abuja.

“The party has also recruited many social media actors to carry out the campaign of calumny by proxy.

“We uncovered this evil plot targeted to manipulate Nigerians and most especially Northerners to see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in bad light as the only way for PDP and its failing presidential campaign to have a chance at the February 25 presidential election.”

The APC PPC warned that the alleged plan was capable of “causing disharmony, ill-will and needless crisis with attendant security implications in the country.”

Onanuga further claimed that the parody cloned accounts “were used by the PDP on Saturday to publish malicious fake news that trucks carrying old Naira notes, belonging to Tinubu, were arrested in Lagos.”

He urged the affected newspapers to inform Facebook and Meta about the alleged activities of the fake pages

“Part of the PDP’s evil machinations will be to make false claims and allegations against President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima and other APC National, Regional, Zonal and State leaders in manipulated videos, doctored voice overs, photoshop images and other means all in a bid to win election by hook or crook.

“PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar know they can’t win this coming election. They also know Nigerians will never vote for PDP to take over the leadership of Nigeria after inflicting 16 years of misery on Nigerians,” added Onanuga.