…Tells Otegbeye: ‘Fake News’ll Take You Nowhere’
A group in Ogun State, Ogun Integrity Vanguard, has dismissed as fake news, the story published by an online medium, ‘Eagles Times,’ claiming that civil servants in Ogun State had resolved to vote incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun out of office.
The group described as comedy taken too far the publication, wondering why failed but desperate politicians would hide behind disreputable online blogs to purvey falsehood against a performing governor.
Pointing out that like all mercantile outfits thriving on falsehood, innuendo and hearsay, ‘Eagles Times’ gave itself away when it claimed that the dissatisfied Ogun workers had resolved to vote for Biyi Otegbeye of African Democratic Congress, ADC, who it said had given them a clear plan to solve salary and pensions problems in Ogun State, the group warned the ADC candidate to desist from using fake news to impugn the integrity of Governor Abiodun, saying that such tactics could never stop the workers’ resolve to re-elect the governor for a second term of office.
The Ogun Integrity Group made this declaration in a statement signed by its secretary, Duro Thomas, and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta on Thursday.
Thomas revealed that checks on the ministries referenced by ‘Eagles Times’ in its hatchet job against Governor Abiodun showed that the names of the purported civil servants speaking out against the governor were entirely fictitious.
Thomas said, “Contrary to the falsehood by Jokotola McCarthy, the ‘Eagles Times’ reporter, assuming that even the reporter’s name is real, there is no Liadi Salami occupying the post of director in Ogun, and neither is there any Mrs Victoria Adams at the payroll of the Ministry of Finance
“It is sufficiently clear that the ‘Eagles Times’ story is a fabrication by a cash-and-carry blogger, working for political desperadoes, who thrive on misinforming the populace.
“It is interesting that the fictitious civil servants cited by ‘Eagles Times’ concocted fiction against Governor Abiodun, by claiming that he is owing workers 27 months deductions in three years, with no clear plan to settle them, and that 97 percent of Ogun workers, the same Ogun workers that have already endorsed the governor’s second term bid, gave a ‘not- satisfied’ rating!
“If Mr. Otegbeye really wants to be governor, he would not have endorsed fake news meant to take out a performing governor. In case he does not know, Ogun workers are decent, forward-looking individuals, who can never be deceived by political fraudsters, whose stock in trade is fake news anchored by corrupt bloggers.”
