Following a report from a less than reliable source that President Buhari will be traveling to the United States, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has come out to rubbish the claim.
The information had come from a parody account on Twitter under the name of Lai Mohammed which had claimed that President Buhari was to travel to the United States to console President Trump over the victims of Hurricane Harvey which hit and had gotten a reaction from Nigerians.
Lai Mohammed also added that it was an old NTA News video being circulated on Social Media with 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,” he said
He added ”Numerous parody accounts have been opened in my name on the two platforms, when indeed I have no Twitter or Facebook accounts.”
He said that this highlighted the dangers of fake news and its dissemination to people on social media and he warned that those behind these accounts would soon be unmasked.
”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,” Alhaji Mohammed said.