A video emerged on November 2, 2017, which misled people into thinking the former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has declared his ambition to contest the 2019 presidential election.
In the video, Atiku described himself as a true democrat with all the necessary vision and experience to run the affairs of Nigeria. He stated his readiness to work towards a united and prosperous Nigeria.
Meanwhile, various online news media, including dailypost.ng, naijanews.com, pointblanknews.com, nigerianewsng.com amongst others reported the misleading news.
Atiku Abubakar, has however debunked the said video and media reports, saying some mischievous persons extracted a video clip from his 2011 presidential declaration, to create a false impression that he had formally declared his intention to contest the 2019 General Elections.
He described the video as laughable and unintelligent propaganda of lies, advising those behind it to make good use of their time instead of using his name to achieve malicious objectives.
He described the proponents of the video as “as a group of incompetent and bumbling political novices who cannot see the loopholes in their own stories”.
The former Vice President advised the media to be wary of fake news materials from groups that do not care about credibility.
“While fake news merchants don’t bother about ethics and their reputation, the media has more to lose if they take stories from such disreputable groups without verification”.
