Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says some aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are trying to “drive a wedge” between him and President Muhammadu Buhari.
The APC chieftain said the unnamed individuals, who had not recovered from their loss in the 2015 election, were have launched a campaign of falsehood against him as part of the strategy to disrupt the ongoing anti-graft campaign of the current administration.
He said like their party which had been “buried under the mass of its corruption”, the plot of the “PDP elements” would fail.
“The individuals behind the plot are mostly scared PDP elements made frightened by the Buhari anti-corruption campaign,” read a statement issued on his behalf by Sunday Dare, his spokesman.
“They direct this falsehood at Tinubu in the futile mission of trying to drive a wedge between the president and Tinubu to disrupt the progress being made against corruption and to destabilise the APC. “But their PDP is already something by-gone, buried under the mass of its corruption and wrongdoing. They fight for a cause that has no cause. They are mercenaries of all the ills and defects that the people want excised from our body politic.”
The statement said the smear campaign tagged: ‘Destroy the reputation of Tinubu and his relationship with Buhari’, was spreading on social media. Tinubu said he had the list of websites that had published fabricated reports against him and threatened to take action.
“In the last six weeks, the Tinubu media office has monitored the stream of false, distorted media accounts written against Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the statement read. “We have learned that there is a concerted, wilful campaign tagged, ‘Destroy the reputation of Tinubu and his relationship with Buhari.’
“As part of this ugly plot to cultivate the worst of lies against the national leader of the APC, several blogs and online sites recruited to launch this smear campaign have manufactured stories to advance this sinister plan to taint the public mind with gross lies disguised as news reports and interviews. “Fallacious headlines such as ‘Reasons why I collected N9m-Tinubu’ and ‘I will not return N9m-Tinubu”.
“I am afraid PDP will stop Buhari in 2019 – Tinubu,’ are being paraded. Try as hard as they can the creators of these false tales and misleading headlines will fail miserably.
“While these fellows may think themselves cunning, they might have outwitted their very selves. In writing these stories, they have committed clear libel. In abusing the media office letterhead and name, their misrepresentations amount to forgery.
“They laugh now but walk on thin ice. Soon, that ice will break and they shall have nothing but the weight of their wrongdoing to blame for their predicament that will soon come. “After identifying the bloggers and paid hatchet writers perpetrating these wrongs, the Tinubu media office is taking the step to alert the public to beware and be weary of hatchet writers, false prophets and paid bloggers.
“The Tinubu media office has the names and online sites recruited for this campaign and will not hesitate to make them know if they do not desist from their negative mission.”
