Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana, has disowned a Facebook post claiming he advised Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), to give Peter Obi a chance.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Akufo-Addo said the post regarding Tinubu and Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), is false and mischievous.

The Ghana president said he did not author such a post and will never interfere in Nigeria’s internal affairs and politics.

“My attention has been drawn to a disturbing post making the rounds on social media, where it is alleged I have written to the 2023 presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to ‘give Peter Obi a chance and seek treatment for his health’,” Akufo-Addo wrote.

“This is completely false and mischievous, with no iota of truth whatsoever in it.

“I have written no such letter to the APC leader, and it will not occur to me to do so.

“Ghana and Nigeria boast of decades of cordial, strong and brotherly relations, and I am not going to be the one to interfere in the internal affairs and politics of Nigeria.”

My attention has been drawn to a disturbing post making the rounds on social media, where it is alleged I have written to the 2023 presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to “give Peter Obi a chance and seek treatment for his health”. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/qdDkyNNbtz

— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) August 9, 2022

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied the claim that it has recognised Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio as senatorial candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In June, INEC had excluded Lawan, senate president, and Akpabio, former minister of Niger Delta affairs, from the list of candidates contesting Yobe north and Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial districts, respectively.

Meanwhile, APC had submitted the names of Lawan and Akpabio as senatorial candidates, despite the controversy that surrounded the primaries of the party.

On Tuesday, an online report had claimed that INEC had “backdated” the certified true copies of its report on the APC primaries to accommodate some aspirants.

Reacting to the report, Festus Okoye, INEC spokesperson, in a statement on Tuesday, said it defies logic for the commission to “doctor” documents to recognise Akpabio and Lawan after it had refused to publish their names.

“Not for the first time, our attention has been drawn to a story published by an online medium that the Commission has doctored, backdated and certified documents to accommodate the nominations emanating from Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts in respect of Senators Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio,” the statement reads.

“Nothing can be further from the truth. As evidence of the alleged role played by the commission, a certified true copy of form 9C uploaded by their political party and received by the commission on 17th June 2022 when the nomination portal closed was presented.

“For clarity, the form EC9 (submission of names of candidates by political parties) is the form uploaded by parties on the INEC nomination portal.

“This is clearly indicated on the title of the form which was received on 17th June 2022 when the portal closed. What follows is the publication of the personal particulars of nominated candidates which was done a week later.

“The forms of the two personalities in question were not published by the commission. The decision of the commission triggered legal action which is still ongoing.

“It therefore defies logic and common sense to go around and submit doctored documents purportedly recognising the duo as candidates when the matter is clearly sub-judice.

“As part of the ongoing case in Court, a law firm requested the Commission for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Form EC9 submitted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its candidate for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District which we are duty bound to oblige them under the law.

“The form was certified on 15th July 2022. If minimum care had been exercised by the promoters of the story, they would have seen the two stamps of the Commission bearing different dates on the Form. It is this Form that is now misconstrued as INEC’s endorsement.

“For the record, the commission has not recognised any of the two personalities as a senatorial candidate.”

Joshua Dariye, former governor of Plateau, and Jolly Nyame, former governor of Taraba, have been released from the correctional facility in Kuje council area.

The development comes almost four months after the former governors were granted state pardon.

At a council of state meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in April, Dariye and Nyame were among 159 inmates pardoned.

They were granted pardons on the grounds of age and ill health.