Professor Wole Soyinka, on Friday dismissed claims that he paid tribute to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

Soyinka disclosed this in a statement titled, ‘I did not pay tribute to Tinubu – Soyinka’, issued by his spokesman, Abiola Owoaje.

Reports had emerged entitled, ‘Prof Wole Soyinka’s tribute to Sen Asiwaju Tinubu’, supposedly written by Soyinka praising Tinubu on his political accomplishments, had gone viral on various WhatsApp platforms shortly after the former Lagos State governor emerged as APC’s presidential flag bearer on Wednesday.

However, Soyinka has come out to describe the trending post as the handiwork of indolent identity thieves whose preoccupation is to deceive the public in a bid to gain prominence.

The elder statesman maintained that he did not operate or own social media accounts.

The statement read in part:-

“The literary luminary reiterated his position on the 2023 elections and the issues surrounding it, noting that he has no business meddling in the struggle for power by political parties in the country.

“Soyinka enjoins the general public to be on alert to the antics of faceless cowards spreading falsehood, adding that they should not partake in the despicable action of the authors by spreading the cocktail of lies.”

DAILY POST reports that Tinubu scored 1,271 votes to defeat his closest contenders, Rotimi Amaechi, who pulled 316 votes and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who scored 235 votes, on Wednesday.