IN SHORT: Threatening remarks have been attributed to Hauwa Atiku-Uwais, daughter of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party and a former vice president. But they are false, an aide told Africa Check.
A post shared on Facebook in Nigeria attributes a threatening quote to Hauwa Atiku-Uwais, the daughter of Atiku Abubakar.
Abubakar is one of the frontrunners in Nigeria’s 25 February presidential election and the candidate for the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He was vice president from 1999 to 2007.
The post includes a portrait of Atiku-Uwais and the quote: “My dad has been a VP, and he knows the capacity and powers of the president. He will wipe [sic] Wike into shape, because let's not forget at the end of it all my dad is a Fulani man, a very wicked Fulani man, when he decides to deal with you he'd deal with you.”
Atiku-Uwais is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Nyesom Wike is the vocal and influential governor of the southern Rivers state. He lost to Abubakar during the PDP primary election in May 2022 and is part of a group of governors who have been unhappy with that result.
Wike has boycotted most of the party’s campaign and said he will announce his preferred candidate early in 2023.
The five governors have demanded that the national party chairperson Iyorchia Ayu steps down as he is from the same region as Abubakar.
But did Atiku-Uwais really say that her father would “deal with” Wike and whip him into shape?
‘Hauwa Atiku-Uwais never said what was attributed to her,’ says Abubakar office
We searched Atiku-Uwais’s Twitter account and found no evidence of this statement.
There have also been no reports in the local media of her saying anything related to Wike.
This is because the former vice president’s daughter has never made such a statement, Abubakar’s media adviser Paul Ibe told Africa Check.
"Hauwa Atiku-Uwais never said what was attributed to her,” Ibe said. “Like her father, Mrs Atiku-Uwais is an apostle of non-violence who will never speak nor manifest violence.”
There is no evidence that Atiku-Uwais made any statement about how her father Atiku Abubakar would respond to Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike.
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