Fake News

Nigerian Army clears air on “soldiers overthrowing Buhari’s regime” report

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Nigerian Army on Sunday has debunked some media reports making the rounds that it warned some of its personnel against overthrowing the Buhari-led government.

A statement released via Facebook by Army’s spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, described the media reports as “outrageous lies and fabrications.”

“The Directorate of Army Public Relations has been notified of an online story making the rounds, with the caption, ‘Defence Headquarters wars soldiers against overthrowing Buhari’s regime” published on November 13, 2021, by a certain online news medium dubbed -Naija News House

“The said publication, which was riddled with outrageous lies and fabrications claimed that the Defence Headquarters has denounced a call for the military to take over the reins of power. The online outlet went further to attribute its falsehood to “Army Spokesman, Brig-Gen Onyema Nwachukwu”.

Clarifying the issue, the statement added that the Nigerian Army had never made any statement of such nature.

It said, “However, for the sake of clarity and to keep the records straight, we wish to state that at no time did the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Onyema Nwachukwu issue any statement on the subject matter. It is, therefore, a figment of their imagination, which did not in any way emanate from Brig Gen Nwachukwu.”

With fabricated reports such as this and others, it’s obvious that Nigerian cyberspace has been littered with a lot of fake news, which has become a serious menace and has posed a serious threat to Nigeria’s peaceful coexistence.

Official: Kano rebuts trending story on women driving ban

Press Release

Kano state government has described as fallacious a trending story on social media platforms on a purported plan to officially disallow women regardless of any faith from getting behind the wheel.

The state commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba who made the clarification in a statement issued on Thursday, said government had at no time contemplate on the matter.

He said the story, which could not be traced to any credible source, was nothing but the imaginary thinking of the authors.

“The trending story lacks any credibility and that is why it is wholly attributed to a source that cannot be substantiated,’’ it added.

Malam Garba pointed out that if at all there was such plan, the state government does not have to be involved in any secretive meeting to decide on a critical issue that has to do its teeming populace.

The commissioner stated further that even Saudi Arabia which for decades had laws that sanctioned women from driving has, after all, lifted the ban in 2018.

He said it was interesting that some of the scholars quoted to have supported the alleged ban have already dissociated themselves from the story.

MALAM MUHAMMAD GARBA

Hon. Commissioner for Information, Kano state