Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, has urged Nigerians to disregard information from any social media account claiming to be associated with its leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo.
Jare Ajayi, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, said in a statement on Sunday that the Twitter account cited by some electronic and online media did not belong to Adebanjo or any of the Afenifere leaders.
Ajayi said, “It is hereby being clearly stated that Chief Adebanjo has no social media account of any sort, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.
“Whenever he has anything to say to the public, he does so directly by addressing the press, through an interview or a Press Statement. He also addresses the public through the Secretary General or the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere.”
The statement added that the social media account was created by mischievous persons for nefarious objectives as could be gleaned from one of the posts purporting to explain why Adebanjo is supporting Mr. Peter Obi in the forthcoming presidential election in 2023 instead of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba man.
Ajayi quoted Adebanjo as saying that his support for Peter Obi is “more fundamental and constitutional than the reason being purported in the spurious social media account” under reference.
“In view of the fact that Adebanjo usually speaks directly with the press, both print and electronic, any information purporting to have emanated from the said ‘social media account’ should be totally disregarded because he has no such account in any form or manner,” Ajayi added.
It would be recalled that some prominent electronic media quoted from the said Twitter handle some statements purported to have emanated from the Afenifere leader. Some mainstream media too followed suit.
He said, “Since the elder statesman does not have any social media account, whatever is found in the Twitter account could not be said to have come from him. He has no such accounts as he speaks directly to the media or causes his views to be channeled to the public via the organisation’s Secretary General or the national publicity secretary.
“The media and members of the public are hereby enjoined to disregard any statement purported to have been sourced from Pa Adebanjo’s social media account because he has none.”