{"id":6306,"date":"2020-02-19T18:19:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=6306"},"modified":"2020-02-19T18:19:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:19:18","slug":"united-states-presidential-campaign-nigerian-conman-chinedu-amaechi-creates-fake-social-media-account-for-pete-buttigieg-alleges-nigerians-support-political-ambition-claim-big-misunderst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/united-states-presidential-campaign-nigerian-conman-chinedu-amaechi-creates-fake-social-media-account-for-pete-buttigieg-alleges-nigerians-support-political-ambition-claim-big-misunderst\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Presidential Campaign: Nigerian conman, CHINEDU AMAECHI creates FAKE Social Media Account for Pete Buttigieg…alleges ‘Nigerians support political ambition’, claim ‘big misunderstanding’ to cause confusion *Drops the name of Lis Smith, senior communications adviser for Buttigieg’s campaign *Gives impression that Smith is behind “Pete Buttigieg supporter from Nigeria” * ‘It’s an absurd of conspiracy theory’- Smith * “Nigerian shadow account conspiracy theories are the new rat emojis. Sad but not surprising\u201d-Matt Corridoni, the campaign’s deputy rapid-response communications director * BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN Foreign Bureau Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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United\nStates\nPresidential Campaign:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigerian\nconman, CHINEDU AMAECHI creates FAKE <\/strong>Social\nMedia Account for <\/strong>Pete\nButtigieg<\/strong>...alleges\n‘Nigerians support political ambition’, claim ‘big misunderstanding’\nto cau<\/strong>se\nconfusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Drops\nthe name of Lis Smith, senior communications adviser for Buttigieg’s\ncampaign<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Gives\nimpression that Smith\nis behind “Pete\nButtigieg supporter from Nigeria”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*\n‘It’s\nan absurd of conspiracy theory’- Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*\n<\/strong>“Nigerian\nshadow account conspiracy theories are the new rat emojis. Sad but\nnot surprising\u201d-Matt Corridoni, the campaign’s deputy\nrapid-response communications director<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\nGEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN Foreign Bureau Chief<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IN\nA BID TO OBVIOUSLY\nCAUSE CONFUSION IN THE POLITY, MUDDLE THE WATER in the on-going\nUnited States presidential campaign ahead of the November 2020\nelection, a Nigerian fraudster holed up on his laptop in Africa’s\nmost populous black nation in the world, CHINEDU AMAECHI creates a \nfake social media account titled ‘Pete Buttigieg supporter from\nNigeria;’ to sway political supporters of Pete Buttigieg, one of the\nleading presidential aspirants into believing that this politician\nwhose eyes are set on the White House had Nigerians support behind\nhis aspiration. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis a\ncommon belief in most circles of Nigerian law enforcement agencies\nthat Nigerian conmen, who are mostly criminal-minded can notoriously\nput up any mischief or ‘make-believe’ on social media-a global\nnetwork platform seen as the quickest route to trap an unsuspecting\nmembers of the public with one aim at the back of their minds: to\n‘blackmail for money.’ <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nsenior adviser for Pete Buttigieg was accused of running a fake\nNigerian supporter account, but the man who created it says it’s a\nbig misunderstanding. According to a\nsenior adviser for the Democratic presidential candidate Pete\nButtigieg got caught up in the Twitter rumor mill on Sunday when she\nwas accused of running a fake account purporting to be a Nigerian\nsupporter of the former mayor, but the person who Insider confirmed\nowned the account said it was a misunderstanding.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntheory that Lis Smith, the senior communications adviser for\nButtigieg’s campaign, was behind an account for someone named\n“Chinedu,” who was described in the profile’s bio as a\n“Pete Buttigieg supporter from Nigeria” who loves “wine\nand dancing,” was surfaced in a series of screenshots that\nincluded a tweet from the account seemingly identifying the owner as\nSmith. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe one tweet presented as evidence that Smith slipped while running\nthe account, the author wrote on January 30: “Team Pete. Hey.\nIt’s Lis. It’s Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone\nbankers, we need you.”\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe one tweet presented as evidence that Smith slipped while running\nthe account, the author wrote on January 30: “Team Pete. Hey.\nIt’s Lis. It’s Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone\nbankers, we need you.”\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe theory began making the rounds, the “Chinedu” account\ntweeted to mock the allegations, blaming “Bernie Bros.” The\naccount appeared to have been deleted by Sunday afternoon.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insider\nidentified Instagram and LinkedIn accounts with associated usernames\nand similar profiles to the @easychinedu\naccount on Twitter, and when reached for comment via LinkedIn\nmessage, the person behind the accounts said they were not affiliated\nwith Buttigieg’s campaign and that the person had\nrun the Twitter account before deleting it Sunday for fear of being\ndoxxed. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nman, who said he was Nigerian and a supporter of the former mayor of\nSouth Bend, Indiana, also told Insider he had posted the “It’s\nLis” tweet as a joking reference to the campaign email, which he\nsaw circulating on Twitter. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insider\nconfirmed the existence and identity of the man behind the accounts\nthrough requesting and receiving a photograph of the man holding a\nsign with the date and phrase “I am not Lis Smith” written\non it. He also verified his ownership of the account through email\nscreenshots.Insider\nis not revealing his identity to protect his privacy.\nBy\nSunday evening, the Jewish Currents editor David Klion apologized on\nTwitter for his role helping spread the notion that Smith was behind\nthe account.Smith\nacknowledged the allegations on her official account, brushing it off\nas an“absurd”\nconspiracy theory<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt\nCorridoni, the campaign’s deputy rapid-response communications\ndirector, emailed a statement to Insider denying that Smith created\nthe account.”Nigerian\nshadow account conspiracy theories are the new rat emojis,”\nCorridoni wrote. “Sad but not surprising.”\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked\nwhether the campaign was officially denying that Smith had created\nand posted from the account, Corridoni confirmed it was regarded as\n“an online conspiracy theory.” \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of\ncourse we are because this is very obviously an online conspiracy\ntheory,” Corridoni wrote in an email. “Quite shocked you’d\nthink otherwise.” \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\njournalists chimed in to joke about the theory, with New York\nmagazine’s Olivia Nuzzi alluding to email scams, writing that Smith\n“asked me for my social security number and the name of the\nstreet I grew up on…or else I couldn’t have a press credential to\ncover Pete.” \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith\nis a well-known political adviser who partially made her name as a\ncampaign aide for Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York and has been\ncredited for the media strategy responsible for Buttigieg’s rise in\nthe polls, which she has described as\n“going\nout everywhere, meeting voters where they are, not turning our noses\nup at nontraditional outlets.”\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\naccount’s identity as a black Buttigieg supporter touches on one of\nthe campaign’s widely reported points of vulnerability, as an Insider\npoll last fall found the former mayor was satisfactory\nto only 27% of black voters<\/a>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those\nresults came a month after a report from The Intercept said\nthe campaign had falsely said three prominent black figures in South\nCarolina supported his Douglass Plan policy proposals when only two\nhad and none had supported him as a candidate.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Additional report by Business Insider   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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