As the 2023 general election draws closer, the merchants of fake news appear to have come out in full glare.
Some supporters of the leading presidential candidates have taken over the social media space with unverified claims about these candidates.
On Monday, unverified news claimed that popular actor, Nkem Owoh popularly known as Osuofia, was offered N10 million to endorse the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Bola Ahmed Tinubu which he rejected.
All the blogs where the story appeared did not pinpoint any source but used the tag “reportedly” to stamp the reports. The actor mentioned has yet to confirm or debunk the reports.
Despite the Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party Datti Baba-Ahmed’s announcement on Monday that he does not have a social media account, the blogs who have reported the news attached a tweet from one of these fake accounts.
I have always known Nkem Owoh as a good actor, but didn't even know he also has standard and integrity.. https://t.co/HDBf993Nuy
— LocalMan (@standoski) August 1, 2022
The report has since generated loads of reaction by supporters of the Labour Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi.
In what may be tagged a ‘revenge’ to the unverified report to dent Tinubu’s campaign, social media users known to promote the presidential bid of Tinubu has now claimed that Yoruba Nollywood actor Saheed Balogun rejected N20m to endorse Peter Obi.
This has generated discussions surrounding the artist with his name now trending at number one on TwitterNg.
Read comments by Twitter users below:
Nkem Owoh rejects N10 million naira to endorse Tinubu & APC. Zack Orji accepts the money to endorse BAT. Take a look at the two of them. One is still active in service, getting endorsements and getting awards. The other obviously took a secret oath with Carowhite. Poverty is bad
— Chlorpheniramine (@VictorIsrael_) August 1, 2022
They’re now offering money to celebrities to endorse Agbado. Don’t be surprise to see more endorsements in the coming days. You will even hear stories like “my village people were pursuing me in the dream, only Agbado came to rescue me” Nkem Owoh just rejected their 10m offer!
— Onyedikachi Madueke (@kachimaglobal) August 1, 2022
https://twitter.com/TAssorted/status/1554404255720771586
https://twitter.com/Denreledave/status/1554432250611113984
https://twitter.com/davidayobami02/status/1554397898342809601
https://twitter.com/FS_Yusuf_/status/1554186910427500545
Nkem Owoh is an actor with principle and not regular actors waiting for handouts from politicians.
His rejection of N10m Tinubu gave him for his endorsement is a prove of what he represents.
— Ogbuefi (@MistaChika) August 1, 2022
