The Ondo State Government has debunked the rumour that the governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, was critically ill and flown to Germany, saying the report “is wicked and misleading.”

A statement issued to journalists in Akure yesterday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Richard Olatunde, said that the report was sponsored to discredit the governor.

“We are not amazed at this fabricated and outright falsehood, which is being spread by cronies of some disgruntled politicians in their renewed effort at plastering battered political misadventures.

Olatunde affirmed that the governor was not hospitalised anywhere, saying: “These are mere wishes of failed politicians who now carry the burden of uncanny distrust and embedded treachery. We won’t even wish them their evil imaginations.

“Once, they have tried; and they failed woefully. No amount of borrowed falsehood to cover up their moral deficiencies will bring back their lost political glory. We will also advise Sahara Reporters to strive at uprightness, however difficult it seems for an entrenched, unprofessionally-warped ilk in its mode.

“Journalism is about sacred truth. A journalist cross-checks facts and presents only the truth and not fabricated stories as mindlessly portrayed by Sahara Reporters in its unrepentant trajectory on the path of infamy.”