IN SHORT: There are claims online that Nigerian Labour Party candidate Obi is still a member of another political party, even as he challenges the February 2023 presidential election result in court. But these are false.
A claim that Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi withdrew his resignation from a political party was still making the rounds online in April 2023, months after it supposedly happened.
“Peter Obi already deleted his PDP Resignation Tweet but Internet always remember,” began one post shared on Facebook.
The post claimed that Obi, who was the Labour Party's presidential candidate in the 25 February election, had deleted a tweet he had made about his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obi came third in a vote won by the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC), Bola Tinubu. Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second. The PDP and Labour have challenged this result in court.
The post says: “Because APC filed that he is not eligible to contest because he not a member of LP according to section 77 of the Electoral Act 2022.. You must be a registered member of a political Party 30 days before the primary election.”
Obi announced his resignation from the PDP and withdrew from the party’s presidential primaries in a tweet on 25 May 2022.
Two days later, he announced his intention to contest the 2023 election under the Labour Party.
The claim that Obi was still a member of the PDP in 2023 appeared on Facebook here, here, here and here.
Tweet announcing resignation not deleted
But did Obi delete the tweet about his resignation, suggesting he is still a PDP member? We checked.
A search of Obi’s verified Twitter handle shows the tweet has not been deleted.
The tweet announcing his resignation is still available on Twitter. We could find no evidence that Obi was still a member of the PDP.
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