By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The publisher of Sahara Reporters, Mr Omoyele Sowore, has been lambasted by the APC Mandate Defenders for claiming that the ban on international flights was lifted by the federal government because the children of the elites needed to return back to schools in abroad.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Ifeanyi Emeka, the group said Mr Sowore’s claim was far from the truth.
The APC Mandate Defenders accused the media practitioner as a “known blackmailer, fake news manufacturer and mischief maker who want to use lies, disinformation and empty propaganda to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians in to supporting his unpopular anti-government movement.”
According to the organisation, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has been using science and data for its decisions since the ease of lockdown began, saying the task force “would never pander to the whims and caprices of anyone, including Mr Sowore.”
“We saw it in the lifting of the ban on inter-state movements, the re-opening of worship centres and domestic flights among others.
“We, therefore, wonder why Sowore would attempt to give negative interpretation to the action of the APC-led federal government when the same government had stated that it would yield to the call by the National Association of Nigerian Students for re-opening of tertiary institutions in the country,” the statement said.
The group further alleged that Mr Sowore had made no pretence in his “vain attempts” to use the task force as a “launch pad for disinformation,” saying it will continue to resist his “nefarious activities.”
“In similar vein, we are aware of the fake news report Mr Sowore used his news medium, Sahara Reporters, to manufacture and peddle during the weekend, accusing immigration officials of collecting bribes from foreign returnees for negative COVID-19 results at the airports.
“Again, we wish to dispel the report because samples are only collected at designated centres and not at the airports where only passports of returnees are collected and not to even talk of issuing test results,” it said.
The group, therefore, advised Nigerians to ignore Mr Sowore, describing him as the “real enemy of the masses because of his mischievous activities and that of his disinformation machinery known as Sahara Reporters.”
Adedapo Adesanya