Minister refutes news of President Buhari’s trip to US

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that a parody Twitter account in his name @MohammedLai, was used to disseminate “fake and ludicrous news” that President Buhari is due to leave Nigeria for the USA on Monday ‘’to condole with President Trump over the floods in Houston’’.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, the minister said a 2015 NTA News video being circulated on the Social Media, claims that President Buhari has already left for the UN General Assembly in New York.

He said the video was repackaged to look current, and to give the impression that the president left Daura, where he is celebrating Eid elKabir, directly for New York.

He said Nigerians should disregard any news credited to any account in his name, either on Twitter or Facebook, adding that ‘’Numerous parody accounts have been opened in my name on the two platforms, when indeed I have no Twitter or Facebook accounts”.

The minister recalled how the same parody Twitter account used to disseminate the fake news about the President’s purported trip was employed to circulate a fake report that he sharply criticized Senator Dino Melaye for attending the Notting Hill Carnival in the UK.

He said these two instances highlight the dangers posed to the polity by the purveyors of fake news and disinformation, and vowed that the Federal Government would soon fish out those behind the shenanigans.