The vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has lamented that some impostors use social media platforms to spread information contrary to his disposition.
Baba-Ahmed, Monday, disclosed that he had battled impostors in the last decade, adding that it got worse when he emerged as the running mate to the party’s standard bearer, Peter Obi.
The former Kaduna senator raised the alarm while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Monday.
The 46-year-old founder of Baze University said that popularity came with its consequence, as he added that his reputation was at stake over the activities of impersonators who had opened several accounts in his name.
Baba-Ahmed said, “Impostors had, right from the inception of the various social media platforms, opened accounts in my name without my knowledge or approval. I wrote several complaints accordingly, which were never attended to satisfactorily.
“This situation remained for nearly a decade, and I decided to be inactive on the platforms till my complaints were satisfactorily attended to. Ever since indications began to appear about my joining the Labour Party, more impostors hurriedly opened more accounts in my name, in most cases misspelled or in the wrong format.”
According to him, some of the information disseminated was deliberate and devised to set him against legitimate and established responsible religious organisations, which often turn into adverse reactions from other social media users.
The politician noted that there had been enough reason for concluding that the party’s opponents and critics are possibly behind the unholy acts during a politically sensitive period.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to disregard any exchange or communications from the fake social media accounts.
“I, hereby, dissociate my humble self from the creation, ownership, and operation of any such social media accounts and equally declare that all exchanges and communications therefrom are without my knowledge or input in any way whatsoever
“I call on the social media platforms owners, creators, and operators to immediately realise the dangers their highly valued technologies portend in society and quickly responsibly rise to the challenge of preventing further creation and use of fake accounts.
“Peter Obi’s growing fortunes have become such a bitter pill for some Nigerian retrogressive status quo politicians to the extent of apparently committing huge amounts of money in creating and spreading falsehood in the name of politics,” he added.
Vanguard