Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi
Adesina, says he has suffered in the hands of those that twist
information and spread fake news.
While speaking at the 5th-anniversary
lecture of News Express in Lagos yesterday September 28th, Adesina said
that the purveyors of fake news and the consumers of such news have
continued to help in its circulation.
According to the presidential
media aide, those who spread fake news and also the consumers of fake
news should be punished by law.
“I have suffered a lot from those who twist information. Our
president came back August 19 and we said on 21, he was going to
broadcast. We said the broadcast was 8am. Suddenly someone went online
and said the broadcast has changed to 7am which had no truth in it at
all. And you know, many people believed the change so a lot of people
missed the original broadcast. That same day people began to call to ask
if there was a public holiday. It turned out that it was Kogi state
that declared public holiday and someone went online to say it was
national.
“If anything must worry us as media people or citizens of any
country, it is fake news. Fake news is an epidemic now. But it is not
just the purveyors of fake news that should be sanctioned, even the
consumers of it are guilty because statistics have shown that the world
consumes fake news more than true news. I saw those statistics online
while doing a research” he said