A Civil society group, under the auspices of Pro-Impact Initiative has raised the alarm over what it termed, “ Calculated attempts to blackmail top Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) officials and derail Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike from repositioning Abuja”
The group pointed out that in less then two weeks over “three fabricated falsehoods” against key officials of the FCT administration has circulated widely on the social media with calls on the FCT to take actions based on the false and fake reports.
The Coordinator of the group, Dr Osamudiamen Isokpehi who briefed journalists over the weekend in Abuja said:” if those behind these acts are not traced , arrested and brought to justice, these criminals may go to any length to jeopardize the smooth administration of the FCT”
Dr Isokpehi noted “ First it was a fabricated lies against some Directors over a disputed land in Guzape district. A statement credited to nobody was circulated online calling for their sack by the FCT minister and quoting “Undisclosed sources”. It was discovered that the original documents of land was stolen from the owner and sold to someone who wanted to continue keeping the land even after owner discovered
“ Secondly the blackmailers went after the permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola by issuing a write up titled: ‘ WHY FCT PERM SEC MUST BE SACKED AND ARRESTED NOW’ credited to one ‘faceless’ Babalola Tajudeen calling on the minister to sack Permanent Secretary of the FCT Administration. The allegations over blotting the workforce , awarding multi-billion naira contracts and others were discovered to be completely false and misleading.
“Thirdly, on Friday 9th, September while the FCTA officials were preparing for Tuesday’s swearing in of mandate Secretaries by the ministers, a notorious Nine paragraph write credited to nobody was pushed into the social media lyiing that The minister had written to EFCC and ICPC asking them to invite and probe his predecessor, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello. Unlike the previous two fake news , the minister of the FCT Nyesom Wike this time issues a clear-worded press statement from his office debunking it as a lie”
Dr Isokpehi said “ we are convinced that Mr Wike who is also a victim of fake news on social media and twisted news in the conventional media won’t work with the report of the blackmailers. These same people we can tell you plainly would be the first to attack Mr Wike when he leave office.
“ Though one might not know the entire motive of these characters, two thing are certain; they want witch-hunt FCT top officials and derail the minister from focusing on repositioning the city for general good “
While we called on these characters to desist from
Such acts and let the FCTA breathe, we called on the Police anti-cyber crime department to trace and arrest these agents of fake news who are currently directing their attacks on FCT administration’s top officials”
Dr Isokpehi appealed to residents of the FCT and Nigerians not to be quick at sharing fake and unverified news items. He expressed worry that “a statement typed on a plain sheet of paper, no letter head, signed by nobody and credited to nobody would be believed and so widely shared thus making falsehood looks exactly like the truth”
He, however, commended Barr Nyesom Wike for his proactiveness in administering Abuja he appealed to the staff to give him all the needed support to succeed.
