By Pascal Ibe
The ThisDay newspaper front page with headline that Imo governor, Hope Uzodimma declared free marriage between Fulani Settlers and Imo ladies, has continued to circulate on WhatsApp groups since Sunday.
Dated August 27,2021,the headline of the edition was verbose: Shocking: Uzodimma Declares Free Marriage Between Fulani Settlers and Imo Ladies ….Promises to pay bride price for herders who choose to marry Imo ladies… Imposes N1m fine to any father who refuses to give consent.
But in a swift statement by Imo government on Monday, the Commissioner for Information in the state, Declan Emelumba condemned the resurrection of a cloned fake THISDAY story against Governor Hope Uzodimma.
Mr Emelumba regretted that those who are bent on stoking conflict between Ndigbo and the rest of the country were behind the re circulation of the cloned newspaper publication where it was alleged that Gov Hope Uzodimma has pledged to marry off Imo women to Fulani settlers.
He said the cloned Thisday publication first circulated in August 2021, which was promptly disowned by the management of the newspaper.
Emelumba disclosed that the resurrection of the fake news story has been traced to the same group raising a false alarm that Imo state was hosting an IDP Camp at Nsu,Ehime Mbano local government area of the state.
He named the sponsors as those who woefully lost the recently conducted local government election and were looking for ways to cause instability in the state.
Emelumba said it was ungodly for people out of sheer political banditry to resurrect an issue that had been settled three years ago.
According to him, Uzodimma doesn’t even have the power to compel any lady outside his biological children to marry anyone, and he wondered where they got that satanic idea from.
He said it was ridiculous for people to peddle such a rumour again ,even when they know that there is no iota of truth in it.
First surfaced in 2021
Findings by FACTWATCH indicated that this same ThisDay headline first appeared online in August 2021.
Further checks showed that the original headline of THISDAY the same day was: Buhari Elated as NNPC Breaks Jinx, Declares N287bn Profit First In 44 Years.p
A statement signed by Oguwike Nwachuku, chief press secretary to Uzodinma in August 2021, said that the originators of the fake publication had two things in mind, “To tarnish the image of the governor and to destroy the credibility of THISDAY as a brand.”
According to the release, “The ill conceived publication shows how desperate individuals and groups can get in trying to destroy the society, thinking that Governor Uzodimma is the issue.
