Nigerians have been outraged after reports emerged that the All Progressive Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, was seen throwing scarce new banknotes at crowds, during the round off of his rally in his home state of Lagos.
However, the Lagos State Chapter of the APC in a swift reaction, described the reports as untrue.
The rally was held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, but the politician and his campaign team drove round the city in a show of support.
APC’s Publicity Secretary in Lagos State, Mr Seye Oladejo, said in a statement that the report emanated from the party’s opponents who were dazed by the success of the rally.
Oladejo said that the political opponents resorted “to planting fictional stories of Naira-throwing by our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.”
He added: “In a currently trending post, the orchestrated report purports that Asiwaju Tinubu threw wads of banknotes to a cheering crowd at Oshodi as his motorcade rode past from Lagos airport en route Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
“It is nothing but a lie from the pit of hell.
“It is part of an ongoing well-oiled campaign of calumny in a compromised section of the media to project Asiwaju in bad light at a time millions of Nigeria are unable to access their hard-earned cash deposited in the banks.
“Asiwaju has championed the cause of long-suffering Nigerians that they are allowed to spend old banknotes pending when CBN is able to make adequate new banknotes available.
“Where will Asiwaju have seen new notes to be throwing on Lagos highways?”
The spokesman said that the party would have ignored the report but chose to issue the statement for the sake of those who might be deceived by the report.
According to him, a closer look at a short video attached to the referenced report will reveal that two APC leaders were the ones actually throwing branded APC fez caps and leaflets to the cheering crowd.
“It is certainly not Naira notes.
“We urge our supporters and all right-thinking Nigerians to remain calm and vote Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC candidates on Saturday, Feb. 25,” Oladejo added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ruling APC on Tuesday held its final campaign rally in Lagos.
The rally was attended by the party’s bigwigs including President Muhammadu Buhari.