The presidential candidate of the Labour Party has reiterated that he has been a firm believer of issue based campaign even when other candidates use their media platforms to attack him. Mr. Obi was reacting to the allegations by the Tinubu Campaign Organisation yesterday, on the prevalence of fake news in the public narrative space throwing his weight behind the call by Tinubu for the campaign, whenever it starts, to be based on issues and not personality.
A statement signed by Obi’s Media Adviser, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, said the statement by the APC advising candidates to “desist from spreading lies, malice and denigrating other candidates,” exactly mirrored what Obi had propagated over the years.
He said if supporters were mindful of this, some articles published in some newspapers against Obi would not have been published, including those with offensive titles.
On the alleged fake letter from the President of Ghana and the alleged request of N50 billion monthly payment, Obienyem said that while Obi was not bothered about their authenticity, it was wickedness to link them to his supporters, insisting that any publication from Obi’s group was always properly signed and the source clearly spelt out.
Obienyem, who also described as the height of mischief, the attempt to link Obi’s campaign to IPOB, said: “We know that things are not well in Nigeria.
We know of the agitations in different parts of the country, our principal has always said what he would do with such organizations to stop their agitation and bring them back to Nigeria as one happy family.
”Instead of others saying what they will do, they are here creating more problems by trying vainly and wickedly to link their fellow contestants to some of those organisations.”
He expressed happiness that Nigerians knew the truth and that such gimmicks used to deceive them would no longer fly.
Obienyem said that right from Obi’s position as governor of Anambra State, he was not known for the habit of attacking people or building lies against others, adding that his disposition was contrary to those of some of his opponents, whom, he said, actually originated most of those fake news, published them under false names and turned round to ascribe them to Obi or his supporters.