All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council has spurned reports suggesting that it apologised to former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, over the wrongful use of his picture in a recent documentary of its presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
At a roundtable with editors organised by the Front Fort Media Initiative and the MacArthur Foundation in Lagos recently, Duke had called out the APC for using his image in Tinubu’s documentary.
The former Cross River governor said the APC and its campaign team allegedly used his photograph as a 12-year-old as that of Tinubu in a documentary titled ‘The Nation Builder.’
A statement purportedly issued yesterday by the director, Media & Publicity, of the APC presidential campaign council, Bayo Onanuga, had said the use of Duke’s photo was “an honest mistake for which all involved have accepted responsibility.”
But another statement issued last night by the APC presidential campaign council disowned the earlier statement, saying it is a fake news meant to create confusion and mislead the public.
Onanuga noted in the statetement: “Our attention has been drawn to a press statement currently in circulation credited to the Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga.
“In the said statement, Mr. Onanuga was reported to have apologised to Mr. Donald Duke for an error in the use of his picture in a documentary on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We want to categorically state that the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council did not authorise the said statement and Mr. Onanuga didn’t issue any statement on behalf of the campaign council and our principal, Asiwaju Tinubu today.
“We urge the media and members of the public to disregard the statement as a fake news designed to create confusion and mislead the public.”
