Back to Africa Check

False headline claims Okorocha pledged to help Atiku win at Nigerian election tribunal

Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar has launched a court challenge to All Progressives Congress leader President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in Nigeria’s 23 February 2019 elections.

A news story shared several times on Facebook claims Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha has pledged to help Abubakar win at the tribunal. Okorocha was an APC senatorial candidate in the election. He is still officially a member of the APC.

The article by Exclusive103.com was also posted on the Atiku fanpage, where it has been shared over 170 times.

The headline reads: “Am Sure Atiku Will Win At The Tribunal, I Will Make Case Easy For Him, By Bringing Out Imo State Original Vote, Everyone Will Feel My Pain – Okorocha”.

But there is not a single mention of Okorocha in the 11-paragraph story.



False headline means clickbait


The article does refer to Abubakar’s spokesperson responding to allegations that his campaign hacked the database of the Independent National Electoral Commission. It also says the politician’s lawyers “boasted that they had enough evidence to overturn the presidential election in their client’s favour”.

But there’s no quote by Okorocha or reference to him easing the way for Abubakar at the election tribunal.

This indicates that the article is essentially clickbait, online content published for the sole purpose of attracting as many visitor clicks as possible. This practice is not uncommon on websites such as Exclusive103.com.  

Though Okorocha has had spats with the leadership of the APC, he openly campaigned for Buhari’s re-election.

There is no evidence Okorocha has fallen out with Buhari and now supports Abubakar and the PDP. – Allwell Okpi (08/04/2019)




 

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.