The Anambra State government has described the information that it is selling the Awka Stadium as not only false and misleading but also a perfect example of disinformation.
A statement by the Commissioner for information & Public Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba, said that the misinformation is the design of a major opposition political party, desperate to have a foothold in the state after this weekend’s election.
According to the commissioner, the said party “has hired the services of a controversial contractor from the state to help it in its disinformation agenda against the people and government of Anambra State”.
He explained that the contractor is one of the major beneficiaries of the scandalous irrevocable standing payment orders (ISPOs), through which Ndi Anambra lost billions of dollars to dubious contractors during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) regime in the state, leading to the closure of primary and secondary schools in the state for almost one academic session.
“The controversial contractor has thus been spreading the information that the state government is in the process of selling the Awka Sports Stadium to an unnamed private developer,” the statement said.
The information, he stated, is, of course, not only false and misleading but a perfect example of disinformation.
He explained further that disinformation, as distinct from ordinary misinformation, occurs when a person spreads news which he or she knows to be false and still goes ahead to spread it. Adding that the disinformation is often his or her manufacture and poses a real and present danger to society.
“Far from planning to sell the Awka Sports Stadium, the Anambra State government has developed a comprehensive plan to develop it into a modern stadium befitting the status of Awka as a modern state capital. Consequently, there is a provision of about N500 million in the 2019 Anambra State budget for the development of this stadium and two others. Any person who so wishes can easily obtain a copy of the budget from any of the relevant government agencies.
“Ndi Anambra are enjoined to disregard false rumours like the above meant to create mass disaffection in the state. There are many of such rumours sponsored by those not happy with the APGA state government for not bringing back the irrevocable standing payment orders and other unconscionable schemes through which the state was milked dry for years, leaving it with no money to pay teachers and civil servants as well as pensioners, build or maintain basic infrastructure and discharge other basic responsibilities to the people,” said the commissioner.
While explaining that the people and government of Anambra State have long left Egypt, and no false propaganda can make the people choose to return to the days which the locusts consumed, he added that the present APGA administration will rather continue to work for the benefit of all, so that Anambra will remain the most competitive state in the federation.