The Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD) has slammed pointblanknews.com and its publisher describing them as fake news merchants.
It accused the medium of publishing an untrue story that claimed that the ADC to the President had blocked attempts by Mamman Daura and Sabiu “Tunde” from breaking into the late Abba Kyari’s office, stating that this story was totally false and lacked creativity.
In a statement signed by Akinloye James, its President, ISD stated that this story was cooked up by persons loyal to the PDP’s intent to wage a fake news campaign against people in the villa.
It statement read that “the story published on the infamous pointblanknews.com, and tagged “Buhari’s ADC Blocks Mamman Daura, Sabiu “Tunde” from breaking into Late Abba Kyari’s Office” is totally false, lacks fictive creativity and is simply outlandish.
“First the facts: officers under the late Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari have access to their offices and continue to work.
“Second, this news post proves itself another badly written work of fiction as it claims to have been gotten from sources within the villa. Its author has forgotten that all media personnel posted to the villa have been asked to self-isolate after covering the funeral of the late Chief of Staff. So where does this fictitious source come from?”
ISD went further to state that Jackson Ude, the publisher of the online platform served under the campaign of former Minister of Aviation, Mr Femi Fani Kayode, who it described as being notorious for fake news.
“This fake news item does not come as a surprise given the notoriety of the publisher of pointblanknews.com: Jackson Ude, a former Assistant Director to Femi Fani-Kayode under former President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 elections. This duo are notorious for Fake News, it is not going to be the first time.
In fact, Mr Jackson Ude is a fugitive who cannot step foot in Nigeria. He has a court judgment hanging over his head, after he was convicted over a libel claim that was made against him.”
It noted that all this was a well-orchestrated campaign by the PDP against the staff of the President.
“What we are seeing here is the PDP attempting to wage a campaign against the people in the Villa. Once kicked out of the Villa for their lack in character, irresponsible governance, and public trust malfeasance, they have not yet learnt their lesson that these kinds of behaviours do not bear any good fruit.” The statement read.
