Kazeem Waris
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of allegedly plotting to discredit the party’s presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna through artificial intelligence-generated deepfake videos, fake news and counterfeit documents.
The council, through its spokesperson, Dele Alake, alleged in a statement on Saturday that the opposition had launched a coordinated misinformation campaign targeting President Bola Tinubu, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani and other APC leaders ahead of the rally.
“We have uncovered a well-orchestrated, devious plan by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his party to discredit the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna today, Saturday, October 24th, 2026,” Alake said.
According to the council, the alleged plan involves manipulating public opinion through fake news operations, the circulation of deepfake videos and counterfeit documents, as well as the planting of false reports in mainstream media and on social media platforms.
The APC-PCC cited two incidents in the preceding 24 hours as evidence of the alleged plot.
The first involved a photograph of a security vehicle on routine patrol near an APC campaign billboard in Kaduna metropolis. The council alleged that the image was misrepresented to suggest that security personnel had been deployed to protect the party’s billboards.
It further claimed that a national newspaper published a distorted account of the incident, which Atiku subsequently shared on his official social media handles.
“Immediately after the newspaper published the fake, distorted story, Atiku Abubakar, in a coordinated manner, latched onto it and shared it on his official social media handles to generate traffic and trends,” the statement said.
The second incident, according to the council, involved a letter circulated online, purportedly written by Governor Sani to the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, concerning an alleged release of N2.3 trillion by the Kaduna State Government to host the rally.
The council dismissed the purported letter and the financial claim as baseless, arguing that the alleged expenditure was inconsistent with the state’s budgetary allocations.
“How much is the entire annual revenue of Kaduna State, or any state, for that matter, that a state would spend N2.3 trillion to host a rally?” the statement queried.
It added that Kaduna State’s combined budgets for 2024, 2025 and 2026 amounted to less than the alleged N2.3 trillion expenditure.
The council put the state’s budgets for the three years at N458.271 billion, N790.439 billion and N985.9 billion, respectively.
Beyond the two incidents, the APC-PCC alleged that opposition elements planned to circulate old, doctored and AI-generated videos during the rally to create the impression that residents were opposed to the APC campaign.
“The ADC and Atiku’s hirelings have also perfected plans to circulate old, doctored, and deepfake videos as the rally gets underway later today to show purported resentment by the people,” the statement said.
The council accused Atiku and the ADC of attempting to undermine the ruling party through what it described as misinformation and urged Nigerians to remain vigilant.
“We urge Nigerians to be vigilant and reject their machinations,” it added.
