A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Mohd. Lukman, has described as a “fake news” the reported face-off between governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa and his counterpart from Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, during the last meeting of the APC governors.
The Progressives governors met at the Kebbi governor’s lodge in Abuja on Sunday evening.
Reports however, emanated from a section of the media (not Blueprint) that the said two state governors had face-off during the meeting over the contentious direct primary or indirect primaries.
Lukman said the meeting was held under a usually peaceful and harmonious atmosphere, devoid of any face-off or disagreement over any issue while the meeting lasted.
Responding to the media reports when asked, director-general told Blueprint that the story was far from being the truth, as there was no such scenario during the meeting of governors that lasted for almost 3 hours.
Lukman said that direct primary was never discussed at the meeting adding the issue was never on the agenda.
“The issue of direct primary did not come up during the meeting, because it was not on the agenda. The key issue that came up at the meeting was what the Chairman of PGF and governor of Kebbi state, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, briefed the media about. It was about the national convention of the party and how to promote good governance.
“The truth is, there was a very good harmony among all governors in terms of the way to go. They agreed to remain united and ensure that they continue consultations and make sure all the problems of the party are resolved.
“There was no face-off among the governors. Whoever planted this story, did it deliberately to misdirect the public, because it (face-off) never happened.
“There was no tension throughout the meeting. There was nothing of such. The fact is the two governors that were said to have boxed each other sat beside each other throughout the meeting and there was no argument between them.”
The PGF boss then advised media practitioners to be guided by the ethics of journalism practice.
“The media should restrain itself and work based on the script they are giving. If the media involve in speculation, to create stories to popularize their platform, they will damage themselves, because the story of a face-off between two governors was fake news.”
