By Ann Godwin, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Government has dimissed a trending audio video of Governor Nyesom Wike planning to bribe officials of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying it was an old discredited clip concocted by an online newspaper.
In the recording, Wike was seen talking through the telephone with INEC officials and some individuals believed to be his aides.
The conversation centred on payment mobilisation and sharing of money to achieve a determined election outcome.
The recording alleged that the governor directed that money be shared to INEC officials to manipulate election outcomes.
But a fact-check on the video, titled, “Full Audio of Governor Wike Caught On Tape Arranging Bribe For INEC Officials” and published by an online medium, revealed that the audio recordings had been on YouTube since December 16, 2016.
Reacting to the clip, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications , Chris Finebone, said it was sad that some persons were using doctored and false audio and visual materials on the internet to dent the image of Wike.
Finebone explained that the doctored audio clip was concocted by an online medium during the 2016 rerun election in Rivers State, in which the news media purported same to be a discussion between the governor and Dum Dekor.
Finebone said: “That audio concoction was duly discredited and discarded as a piece of rubbish, masterminded by evil people to tarnish the image of Wike. But in a hurry to throw dirt at the governor this time, some people decided to exhume and use same old discredited clip to justify their evil machination of sullying the image of the governor.”
Source: The Guardian