2019: Group urges Nigerians to beware of fake news, false narratives

Fri, Dec 14, 2018 | By publisher


Media

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has dismissed a report suggesting that 75 per cent of Nigerians who voted for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 had no Permanent Voter Cards (PVC).

The group in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke on Friday in Abuja, described the report as “skewed and lacking in credibility“.

It added that the report was a misrepresentation of facts aimed at giving a false impression of the President’s support base, especially in the Northern part of the country.

The BMO, therefore, urged Nigerians to regard the report as; “yet another in a series of misinformation by pseudo-intellectual groups linked to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

It noted that the report by the faceless group was released at a time PDP elements were selling the false impression that President Buhari does not want the smart-card readers used in 2019 general elections.

It further noted that the fact that the purveyors of the damaging report attributed it to data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed the extent they could go to attach credibility to their evil mission.

“If indeed there was any data from INEC that shows that about 13 million Nigerians were allowed to vote in 2015 without PVC, how is it possible for anyone to determine who an individual cast his ballot for when it was not an open ballot system,“ it querried.

The BMO, therefore, wondered on what basis would anyone conclude that 75 per cent of voters without PVCs were Buhari’s supporters in a region that gave the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan far more votes than he got in the Southern part of the country.

It urged INEC, as well as other government agencies, to be fast in countering disinformation, misinformation and false narratives that were capable of eroding their credibility. (NAN)

– Dec. 14, 2018 @ 18:57 GMT |

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