The
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has urged Nigerians to
disregard the fake news being circulated via a parody Twitter account and an
old NTA news video that President
Muhammadu Buhari is travelling or has travelled to the U.S.
In a statement issued in Lagos on
Sunday, the minister said one of the numerous parody Twitter accounts in his name,@MohammedLai, was used to
disseminate the fake and ludicrous news that President Buhari is due to leave
Nigeria for the USA on Monday ”to condole with President Trump over the floods
in Houston.”Muhammadu Buhari is travelling or has travelled to the U.S.
Also, he said, an old NTA News
video being circulated on the social Media claims that President Buhari has
already left for the UN General Assembly in New York.
”This is a 2015 NTA News video
that was repackaged to look current, and to give the impression that the
President left Daura, where he is celebrating Eid-el-Kabir, directly for New
York,” Mr. Mohammed said.
He said Nigerians should disregard
any news credited to any account in his name, either on Twitter or Facebook,
adding: ”Numerous parody accounts have been opened in my name on the two
platforms, when indeed I have no Twitter or Facebook accounts.”
The minister recalled how the same
parody Twitter account used to disseminate the fake news about the president’s purported trip was employed to circulate a fake report that he sharply criticised Senator Dino
Melaye for attending the Notting Hill Carnival in the UK.
He said these two instances
highlight the dangers posed to the polity by the purveyors of fake news and
disinformation, and vowed that the Federal government would soon fish out those behind the shenanigans.
”Fake news, disinformation and
hate speech are the antics of the naysayers, those who are pathologically
opposed to this Administration. That is why we are urging Nigerians to be more
discerning and to double check any information emanating from the social
media,” Mr. Mohammed said.
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