The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh has refuted the recent trending story in the social media, on how he was forced to resign as PDP Chairman by former President Olusegun Obasanjo; describing the report “as trash fit for the dustbin”.
The Minister who described the social media narrative as a product of the fertile imagination of those who concocted the story grieved at the festering manner that falsehood and wicked lies are being peddled in the social media with reckless abandon
“My attention has been drawn to some publications in the fake news industry alleging that I issued a statement on why I was forced to resign at gunpoint as Chairman PDP. This is totally false and a bunch of lies and I feel sorry for these merchants of falsehood who relish in inventing lies which they dish to the public”, Ogbeh said.
The Minister also expressed worry about the way this pattern of disseminating falsehood is becoming a regular feature in the citizens’ media and the danger they pose to national harmony and cohesion.
Chief Ogbeh also cited the false story a week ago in the press that former IG Gambo had died in Mecca; thanking God that the former IG is alive and well here in Abuja.
“When people write these stories without quoting a source and just pass it off for truth, one feels extremely sorry.”
“I will like to advise the generation that enjoys abusing this social media platforms that if they carry on doing what they are doing as the BBC has cause to warn yesterday, they will end up creating tension, conflict and war in our society, which can lead to irreparable damage and loss of lives.”
It will be recalled that a purported story on how former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who having been treated to a meal of pounded yam in Chief Ogbeh’s house at gunpoint, literally forced Chief Audu Ogbeh to resign as PDP Chairman because of criticism of some policies of the former President at the time; a narrative Chief Ogbeh likened to “peddling beer parlour gossip to cause mischief.”
