The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has disowned its official Twitter handle and the operator, Philip Obin following a scandal over a private conversation with a former aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In an e-mailed statement to The Trent on Friday, April 6, 2018, the APC denounced the attempts by the Twitter handle to engage Reno Omokri.
“The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to false allegations by a Mr. Reno Omokri, which was contained in an April 5, 2018 report published on the website of Vanguard Newspapers, titled: ‘APC secretly reaching out to me for friendship – Reno’,” the statement signed by Edegbe Odemwingie, the assistant director of publicity for the party read.
“The report shows that Mr. Omokri’s allegation is based on interactions he had on Twitter with one Philip Obin who manages a Twitter handle, “@APCNigeria”.
“Recall that the Party had on several occasions distanced itself from the now notorious Twitter handle, “@APCNigeria” following unauthorised tweets and subsequent false reports credited to the Party on the outcome of the Benue South Senatorial rerun election (February 21, 2016) and an “Assessment Poll” on President Muhammadu Buhari Administration (May 31, 2017), among others.
“Despite our rebuttals, Mr. Obin has continued to impersonate the Party through the Twitter handle, “@APCNigeria”.
“For the avoidance of doubts, we wish to state that Philip Obin was one of the numerous youth volunteers for our party during the 2015 elections. He administered the Twitter handle at the time. But despite numerous appeals to him by various well meaning party representatives, to hand over the handle, Mr. Obin has refused and in defiance continues to use it to misrepresent the Party.
“In essence, therefore, Obin’s interactions with Omokri are in his personal capacity and do not involve Party in any way.
“Giving this latest incident, the Party is now left with no option than to take other lawful actions to restrain Obin from further embarrassing the Party. The general public is yet again reminded that the Twitter handle @APCNigeria is not a Twitter handle of the All Progressives Congress,” the statement ended.
