Arise TV has admitted broadcasting fake news against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It has thereafter issued an apology to Tinubu.
The TV station admitted the gaffe after it claimed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced a forfeiture investigation against Tinubu.
But in a retraction on Sunday morning, the Management of Arise TV apologised over the fake report after INEC publicly dismissed it as fake.
The station said: “Of criminal forfeiture of funds, linked to narcotics, smuggling conspiracy and money laundering against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we Arise News that carried the news, which is now been denied by after the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and we apologise most sincerely to the APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the earlier broadcast.”
INEC in a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in Abuja on Saturday, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers.
“A press release purported to have been issued by the Commission has been trending online since yesterday Friday Nov. 11, 2022.
“It claims that the commission has commenced investigation into a case of criminal forfeiture against one of the Presidential candidates in the forthcoming general election and is liaising with a Court in the United States of America in pursuit of same to determine possible violation of our guidelines or the Electoral Act 2022.
“We wish to state categorically that the said press release did not emanate from the commission nor is it pursuing the purported course of action. It is the handiwork of mischief makers and utterly fake.”
Okoye said statements from the INEC are uploaded to the INEC Press Corps platform and simultaneously disseminated through the commission’s website and official social media handles.
Reported by The Nation
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