By ABUBAKAR YUSUF.

With the political firmament becoming tensed by the day in the run up to the 2023 general elections, the media space is getting awash with fake news majorly directed at maligning hard-earned integrity of worthy citizens and political opponents.

An Activist and Executive Director of Democracy for Good Governance Initiative, Alex Njoku, stated this in an interview with newsmen.

Njoku advised the media should “consider threats to political aspiration believed to be a sure way of gaining mileage in a political space while cutting down people”.

He maintained that the image assassination mission, sometimes are also directed at associates of political opponents since it is an instrument that would help in discrediting the Party and political structure of the opponents.

An example, according to Njoku, is the fabricated report recently published on Sahara Reporters alleging that the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, allegedly looted funds meant to tackle insecurity in Nigeria in order to acquire properties worth billions of naira in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), UK and US, without proofs.

In the same vein, some fake news merchants have also gone to town alleging that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, backed out of her senatorial bid after it was discovered that she holds forged basic school certificate.

But the Presidential Adviser has, however, maintained a dignified silence as sources around her dismissed the allegation with a wave of the hand.

Contrary to the information in the rumour mill, it was learnt that the Presidential Adviser never indicated interest in the contest but was rather under pressure by some stakeholders to join the race.

Obviously realising the pedigree of Princess Adejoke, the stakeholders also went ahead to procure the expression of interest and nomination forms for her.

But she eventually turned down the offer as it would distract her from her current national assignment of coordinating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria, where she has performed remarkably.

It could be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, alongside other World Leaders, committed to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and has been implementing the goals to the benefit of Nigerians.

The sterling performance of Nigeria in the implementation of the global agenda has been attracting commendations from local and international stakeholders, including the UN Chief.

Njoku advised the media to be wary of jobless peddlers of falsehood and malicious allegations targeted at destroying the image of their victims. He noted that this has been one of the reasons most responsible and highly qualified people were unwilling to step into the murky waters of politics for fear of having their image smeared.