The Imo State Government has dissociated Governor Hope Uzodimma from a viral poster indicating his vice presidential ambition ahead of the 2027 election.
The poster, which has the image of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, as the party’s presidential candidate and Governor Uzodimma as his running mate, was captioned, “The Winning Team 2027. Vote APC 2027.”
But in a statement on Sunday, the Imo state Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, described the poster as fake and malicious.
Emulumba asserted that the circulation of the poster on social media was the handiwork of mischief makers trying to cause affection between the governor and President Bola Tinubu.
The commissioner stated that at no time had the governor contemplated running for the vice president’s office.
The statement read, “Everyone in Nigeria is quite aware that Uzodimma is one of the fiercest supporters of President Bola Tinubu and has canvassed national support for him to succeed in his assignment.
“It is both laughable and preposterous. Apart from the governor being engrossed in discharging his second term mandate, he has also been supporting Mr President, so where does this malicious misinformation spring from?
“For the avoidance of doubt, His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma has no vice presidential ambition, either now or in 2027. Any information to the contrary is fake, malicious and spurious and should therefore be ignored.”
Emelumba accused the opposition parties of engaging in the propagation of fake news so as to sow a seed of discord between Tinubu and his core loyalists.
He, therefore, counselled the purveyors of fake news to “desist from their serpentine activities capable of undermining the peaceful coexistence between the federal and the state governments.”