Nigeria held the first leg of the general elections on February 25, and the second leg slated for March 11 was shifted to 19; in the build-up to the election, exaggerated, false and misleading claims saturated the media space.

Due to social media sites increasing dominance in Nigeria over the past couple of years, a new front in the country’s politics has emerged as politicians scramble to grab the attention of the nation’s millions of active social media users.

This report highlights actors, methods and colouration of pre-election disinformation in the country.

Festus Keyamo and Podium Reporters
On Labour party presidential candidate Peter Obi…
Festus Keyamo, who doubles as the spokesman for the APC presidential election campaign council, in a post shared on his Twitter handle on August 26, reshared FALSE information from an online platform Podium Reporters (archived here) on his Twitter handle that Labour Party Presidential Candidate Peter Obi has agreed to clear path for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar.

Sharing the report, Keyamo wrote, “We told the OBIdient soldiers that their ‘hero’ was taking them to nowhere; taking them for a ride of the century and for political 419! We laugh! We are ahead of them!”

However, in reaction to the published report and Keyamo’s tweet, the media office of the Obi-Datti 2023 Presidential Campaign debunked the report, describing it as the handiwork of charitable propagandists who indulge in distorting facts in the pursuit of imaginary relevance for their paymasters.

Also, the then Director-General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe, debunked the claim.

Five months after the claim published on Podium Reporters that Peter Obi was planning to step down for Atiku Abubakar, yet again Keyamo made another tweet archived here, where he amplified a content from an online platform, Western Post archived here and titled, “Peter Obi may step down for Atiku, as campaign council considers option,” that was FALSE.

Interestingly, Podium Reporters also published the same report, archived here.

The report read, “Having realised that there is no path to victory in next month general election, the campaign council of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, is already considering how the former Anambra State Governor will step down for Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate.”

It further read, “Exclusive information gathered from top officials of the Peter Obi campaign team is that many of the associates of the Labour Party candidate and advisers have come to the realisation that the coming election is going to be a straight fight between APC and PDP.”

But in reaction to the report, Obi-Datti Media Office described the report as ridiculous and fake.

The statement reads, “Nothing can be more absurd than the fact that 18 persons are in a marathon to pick a trophy and somebody is suggesting that the front runner in the race who is already sighting the trophy wants to step down for somebody behind.

“The fact that other parties contesting for the president have been cloning the LP candidate in their corruptly induced gift items like bags of rice, posters and billboards speak volumes of who is the man to beat in this race.

Another claim shared by Festus Keyamo was on February 9, 2023, that showed a photo of an aerial image of a crowd that reportedly attended the campaign of Bola Tinubu in Sokoto state.

Keyamo tweeted the image archived here, alongside three other photos taken at the event, captioned: “More pictures from the mother of all rallies in Sokoto! The signs are all there for all to see! But they are playing! Make dem dey play!! In about a forth-night, the jungle will mature!!”

President Muhammadu Buhari and other APC members had, on February 9 2023, attended an APC-held rally in Sokoto State.

A Google Reverse Image search of the photo shows the aerial image was from July 31, 2021. Captured during a 4-Day music festival in Chicago, United States, popularly known as Lollapalooza.

Colin Hinkle, an aerial photographer, took the image. Twitter username: @hinklecolin.

Colin Hinkle, in an interview with Business Insider Africa, published on August 4, 2021, the photographer, said the image shows a large crowd who converged at the event in Chicago without wearing masks.

Podium Reporters again
Another report published by Podium Reporters archived here, claimed Former Senator Dino Melaye and some other heavyweight PDP stalwarts smuggled N50 billion out of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The claim, which was published on February 3, 2023, also alleged the Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, was behind the current naira scarcity crisis.

It had said an anonymous whistle-blower released the information to a platform, Abuja News Network.

A check online and offline by The ICIR found no mention of the platform, Abuja News Network, referenced by Podium Reporters to be the source of the report.

In an effort to further confirm the veracity of the claim, a mail was sent to podium****@gmail.com, an email address found on the Facebook page of Podium Reporters, requesting a link to the report or Abuja News Network.

A text message was also sent requesting a link, so also a direct message was sent to their Twitter account. The three messages have not been responded to as of the time of filing this report.

Also, a call was made to 0706****599, a phone number found on the Facebook page of Podium Reporters, which was answered. A male voice picked up the call, and The ICIR reporter proceeded to introduce himself and spoke on why he called the number, to which the receiver on the call said, ‘OK‘ and dropped the call after listening to what said the reporter wanted.

Manipulated visuals
Manipulated letter circulates about UK government and Alpha Beta content
A post circulating on social media shows a letter alleging that the United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating a Lagos-based consulting firm Alpha Beta for a case of laundering money through British banks to suspected drug dealers in Columbia.

The ICIR has spotted the alleged letter from NCA on Twitter and Facebook.

Alpha Beta, which has an exclusive right to collect funds on behalf of Lagos state, has been linked to the former Lagos Governor and 2023 Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Twitter post archived here, was also shared in the same format on Facebook and the website, Nairaland archived here.

alrahmanonline:
C

Epistasis:
Obi is a liar. He lied over everything....he is a liar and the father of obi-diots!

Epistasis:
Obi is a liar. He lied over everything....he is a liar and the father of obi-diots!

Doyou2019:


If you call Obi all these, I wonder how your would describe the father of you miserable BATstards.