The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says there is a deliberate plot by some individuals to rub his name in the mud through fictitious reports in various blogs and the social media.

He said the smear campaign was tagged, ‘Destroy the reputation of Tinubu and his relationship with Buhari’.

Tinubu said this in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Sunday Dare, on Tuesday.

He said most of those behind the act were aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party that had failed to recover from the defeat in the 2015 election.

Tinubu alleged that some of them were being probed for corruption and had decided to push him into the controversy to whip up public sympathy.

He said, “The individuals behind the plot are mostly scared PDP elements made frightened by the Buhari anti-corruption campaign. They direct this falsehood at Tinubu in the futile mission of trying to drive a wedge between the President and Tinubu to disrupt the progress being made against corruption and to destabilise the APC.

“But their PDP is already something by-gone, buried under the mass of its corruption and wrongdoing. They fight for a cause that has no cause. They are mercenaries of all the ills and defects that the people want excised from our body politic. Thus, we must do the people a public service.”

The former governor of Lagos State said he never granted any interview regarding President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to run for re-election in 2019.

He also denied reports that he partook in the $2.1bn arms scam.

Tinubu said he had a list of the blogs that were carrying the false news and would soon expose their sponsors.

He said, “In the last six weeks, the Tinubu Media Office has monitored the stream of false, distorted media accounts written against Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We have learned that there is a concerted, wilful campaign tagged, ‘Destroy the reputation of Tinubu and his relationship with Buhari.’

“As part of this ugly plot to cultivate the worst of lies against the national leader of the APC, several blogs and online sites recruited to launch this smear campaign have manufactured stories to advance this sinister plan to taint the public mind with gross lies disguised as news reports and interviews.

“Fallacious headlines such as ‘Reasons why I collected N9m-Tinubu’ and ‘I will not return N9m-Tinubu”. “I am afraid PDP will stop Buhari in 2019 – Tinubu,’ are being paraded. Try as hard as they can the creators of these false tales and misleading headlines will fail miserably.

“Their stories cannot stand up to the slightest scrutiny. They are patently false and we condemn in the strongest terms those involved in this anti-Tinubu racket.”

Tinubu said such a smear campaign was nothing but libel and would not be taken likely.

The APC leader said some of them had even gone as far as cloning the letter head of his media office, warning that those behind the campaign would soon be brought to justice.

He added, “While these fellows may think themselves cunning, they might have outwitted their very selves. In writing these stories, they have committed clear libel. In abusing the media office letterhead and name, their misrepresentations amount to forgery.

“They laugh now but walk on thin ice. Soon, that ice will break and they shall have nothing but the weight of their wrongdoing to blame for their predicament that will soon come.

“After identifying the bloggers and paid hatchet writers perpetrating these wrongs, the Tinubu Media Office is taking the step to alert the public to beware and be weary of hatchet writers, false prophets and paid bloggers. The Tinubu Media Office has the names and online sites recruited for this campaign and will not hesitate to make them know if they do not desist from their negative mission.”