Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has faulted reports that the aircraft on which President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to the United States of America (U.S.) developed fault mid-air.
The presidential spokesman spoke in Abuja, yesterday, at the public presentation of a book, 101 fake news on EndSARS, authored by a journalist, Dahiru Lawal, and published by PRNigeria, a press release distribution agency.
Adesina described the reports published in some online platforms as an exemplar of fake news that has become a major threat to information dissemination in the country.
“It didn’t happen. I was on that flight. We took off from New York, went straight to Santa Maria in Portugal where we re-fuelled. We took off again and flew straight to Nigeria.
“Where is the mishap? It is a lie; it never happened. Do you know the number of people that have been misled by this fake news? Fake news is a problem not only to Nigeria, but to the whole world. The traditional media should be careful of fake news, because we must first have a country before digital media can be useful to us. We must not allow digital media to be used to destroy our country. Digital media is good, but there is evil embedded in it,” Adesina said.
Citing places where his views were misrepresented by purveyors of fake news, he expressed disappointment that members of the Yoruba group, Afenifere, allowed themselves to be misled by fake news about his recent comparison between Buhari and some past political leaders.
He urged traditional media and professional journalists to be more careful because the digital media appear to be dictating the pace for the traditional media.
Also speaking, Dr. Umar Gwandu, the media aide to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, urged professional journalists not to allow quacks to dictate the pace of information dissemination, because doing so would be a disservice to the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PRNigeria, Yushau Shuaib, who reviewed the 207-page book, said it was intended to highlight the threat of fake news to societal peace and security.
