The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of allegedly orchestrating a disinformation campaign to undermine the ruling party’s presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna State.
The council alleged that the opposition was planning to circulate fabricated stories, manipulated videos and counterfeit documents to discredit President Bola Tinubu, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani and other APC leaders ahead of the campaign event scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2026.
APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson Dele Alake made the allegations in a statement issued on Saturday, claiming that artificial intelligence, deepfake videos and other digital tools would be deployed to mislead the public.
The ruling party said it had observed what it described as coordinated attempts to spread misleading information about preparations for the Kaduna rally.
One of the issues raised by the APC concerned reports suggesting that security operatives had been deployed to protect the party’s campaign billboards in Kaduna.
The council dismissed the reports, arguing that a photograph showing a security vehicle on routine patrol near a campaign billboard had been misrepresented as evidence that officers were specifically assigned to guard the APC’s campaign materials.
Alake alleged that the image was used to construct a misleading narrative that was subsequently published by a national newspaper and shared by Atiku on his official social media accounts.
The APC described the sequence of events as evidence of a coordinated effort to generate negative publicity around the rally.
However, the allegations were made by the APC campaign council, which did not present independent evidence in the statement establishing that Atiku or the ADC had orchestrated the alleged operation.
Controversy over alleged ₦2.3 trillion rally funding
The APC also raised concerns over a letter circulating online that purportedly originated from Governor Uba Sani and was addressed to Senator Abdulaziz Yari, director-general of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
According to Alake, the document allegedly claimed that the Kaduna State Government had released ₦2.3 trillion to finance the APC rally.
The council dismissed the figure as fabricated, questioning how a state government could spend such an amount on a single political event.
To support its argument, the APC cited Kaduna State’s reported budgets of ₦458.271 billion for 2024, ₦790.439 billion for 2025 and ₦985.9 billion for 2026.
It maintained that the alleged ₦2.3 trillion expenditure was implausible when compared with the state’s budget figures.
The council urged Nigerians to treat the circulating document with caution, insisting that it was not an authentic account of the government’s spending on the campaign event.
APC raises alarm over alleged deepfake videos
Beyond the disputed photograph and letter, the ruling party alleged that more misleading materials could emerge as the rally progressed.
Alake claimed that old footage, doctored videos and deepfake content could be circulated to create the impression that residents of Kaduna were opposed to the APC campaign.
The council warned Nigerians against accepting or sharing unverified political content, particularly material designed to influence public opinion during the campaign period.
It described the alleged activities as an attempt to damage the reputations of Tinubu, Governor Uba Sani and the APC leadership.