Akwa Ibom government, Saturday, threw mud on fake news story circulating in social media and dubbed: ‘’South-South Governors, PANDEF Hold Emergency Meeting over $2Billon Katsina Refinery. Back out of Ceasefire Agreement in N/Delta, Call Buhari President of the North.’’
The Federal Government formally launched fake news campaign on July 11, 2018, noting that fake news when mixed with hate speech would amount to a disaster waiting to happen.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, who launched the campaign, said fake news was becoming a serious threat to global peace, including Nigeria, that if left unchecked, could endanger human existence, describing fake news as a dangerous threat to democracy.
Ekerete Udoh, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Udom Emmanuel, said government would have ignored the fake news as the writer had put out a disclaimer that the views expressed were concocted by him, but that no such meeting or the communique purported to have been read by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel ever took place.
Udoh disabused the minds of gullible members of the pubic or the impatient not to believe the farcical news, given the broad mentioning of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State as the one who purportedly read the fake communique on behalf of the South-South governors.
He kicked ‘’this news is FAKE, as no SUCH MEETING OF SOUTH-SOUTH GOVERNORS EVER TOOK PLACE in Asaba, Delta State. The said piece is the figment of the writers mis-applied fertile imagination and should therefore, be discountenanced by members of the public.
‘’Given the heightened ethno-religious tension in the country and the need for us to come together as patriotic Nigerians to deepen our chord of unity and brotherhood, we believe it is extremely irresponsible for an individual to concoct such a story and cause it to be circulated on the Social Media space.’’
The governor’s spokesman called on the security agencies to look into fake news, urging ‘’let the writer understand that there are certain lines that should not be crossed, especially when prominent names of Nigerians are thrown into what is decidedly fake news.’’
