“We want to alert Nigerians to the sinister moves and orchestrated plans of the PDP to unleash a wave of fake news, especially in the Hausa language, to slander, defame and delegitimize Tinubu and the APC.

“This smear campaign of the PDP has already been honed with a dedicated team working around the clock from the PDP national headquarters at Wadata House, Abuja.

“The PDP has also recruited many social media actors to carry out the proxy smear campaign,” Onanuga said.

He added that the APC PCC uncovered the evil plot meant to manipulate Nigerians, especially those of northern extraction, to see Tinubu in a bad light.

Onanuga stated that the PDP did this thinking it was the only way it could have a chance in the February 25 presidential election.

“We deem it necessary at this time to divert the minds of Nigerians to this evil plan capable of causing disharmony, ill will and an unnecessary crisis with consequent security implications in the country.

“The PDP and their hired social media influencers have already started pushing their nefarious content,” Onanuga stressed.

According to him, the PDP is doing this by spoofing and using parody social media accounts of popular newspapers and blogs to spread fake news with the aim of misleading gullible Nigerians.

He said parody social media accounts such as Vanguard Hausa and Daily Trust Hausa were being used to circulate fake news on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and other digital platforms.

“On Facebook, we discovered that Daily Trust Hausa was first created as KRK Media on August 9, 2021. It changed its name to Daily Trust Media on December 7, 2022 and has a fake website address: daily.com.

“A second Daily Trust Hausa Facebook account was created on August 13, 2022 as Facos News Hausa, with the aim of publishing posts about musicians. He changed his name on December 29, 2022, just 22 days after his other clone.

“Vanguard Hausa was created on December 21, 2021. Its website could not be opened.

“All these parody Facebook accounts were used by the PDP on Saturday to post malicious fake news that trucks carrying old naira notes, belonging to Tinubu, were arrested in Lagos.” Onanuga stressed.

He said that, for clarification, the Daily Trust publishes a Hausa newspaper called Aminiya, which was also on Facebook under the same name, adding that the Council was unaware Vanguard had a similar publication.

Therefore, he implored the two newspapers, Daily Trust and Vanguard, to inform Facebook and Meta that they had been cloned by fake news traders for political offensives, planned by the PDP.

He added that part of the PDP’s evil machinations would be to make false claims and accusations against President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima and other APC national, regional, zonal and state leaders.

He said the PDP planned to do this in doctored videos, doctored voice-overs, photoshopped images and other means, all in an attempt to win the upcoming election by hook or crook.

“The PPD and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, know that they cannot win the next elections.

“They also know that Nigerians will never vote for the PDP to take over the leadership of Nigeria after inflicting 16 years of misery on them.

“The legacies left by the party were insecurity, a mismanaged economy, looted treasury, and abandoned national infrastructure in roads, energy, ports, railways, and oil pipelines, among many others.

“The Buhari-led administration is still fighting to undo the massive damage done to our country by the PDP,” Onanuga said.

He added that with Atiku’s presidential campaign heading for collapse, the PDP hoped in vain to avoid imminent electoral defeat by sponsoring coordinated fake news attacks on APC, its presidential candidate, and even on the government.

He urged Nigerians and especially his compatriots from the north of the country not to be fooled.

Onanuga stressed that Atiku and the PDP had nothing good to offer Nigerians other than to enrich himself, his family and friends, as revealed by audio and video leaks from his former media aide, Mike Achimugu.

He assured that the APC administration led by President Buhari was working hard to solve many of Nigeria’s decades-long problems in all sectors.

He added that it was only another APC administration of Tinubu and Shettima that could continue, sustain and improve the good governance trajectory that began in 2015.

Efforts to get PDP officials to respond failed.