in Imo State has threatened to sue anybody who accuses the party as being behind the fake e-copy of This Day newspaper of Friday, August 27, in which Governor Hope Uzodinma was portrayed as a promoter of Fulani and Imo ladies marriage arrangements.
The fake This Day e-copy had carried as its front-page lead story with the banner headline: “Shocking: Uzodimma Declares Free Marriage for Fulani settlers and Imo Ladies”.
The newspaper issued a rebuttal and published the fake copy alongside the original printout of the paper for that same day.
The Imo PDP vehemently disassociated itself, its leaders, members and media operatives from the fake news.
The party, in a statement issued Sunday in Owerri and endorsed by the State Publicity Secretary, Ogubundu Nwadike, said that it felt strongly libelled, maligned and defamed by the statements and insinuations from certain quarters that the bad press was the handiwork of the PDP in Imo State.
The party urged the relevant law enforcement agencies to unravel the culprits of the bad press and bring them to book.
“The party must not fail to establish that the bad press characterises the pedigree and antecedents of the Uzodinma regime, which has right from ab initio grown and cultivated the art of orchestrating and perpetrating lies, falsehood, propaganda and blackmail stunts against PDP and even against itself to curry the sympathy of members of the public,” the PDP noted.
The party reminded how, in the earliest days of the Uzodinma regime, press releases from Hope New Media were repeatedly found to be fake news reports, adding that even press releases that were supposedly signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor were promptly debunked by the same Chief Press Secretary, creating confusion, disaffection and distrust among the people.
This according to the IMO PDP fell into the period, when the governor was reported to have offered to rename Imo State University as Mallam Abba Kyari University and was under severe attacks with constructive criticisms for his bad leadership and bad governance of the state scorecard.
The party noted that “the latest, before the current ‘Fulani settlers and free marriage’ propaganda and blackmail stunt, was the fake news that His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, CON, commended and applauded the rearrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).”
The party called on the relevant authorities to go on a manhunt for the person(s) responsible for the current propaganda and blackmail of Governor Uzodinma while wishing to exonerate the party from the action, which according to it “bears all the handprints of the propagandists that abound in the Uzodinma regime.
“PDP awaits the final outcome of the investigations into the incident to officially acquit and discharge our party from any indictment in the blackmail,” it reiterated.
