"He is not a saint but among politicians in Nigeria today, Peter Obi is a bundle of integrity," a Facebook post quotes Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo as saying.
Obi is the presidential candidate for the Labour Party. He will contest the 2023 general election where Nigerians will vote for who will succeed incumbent Muhammadu Buhari.
Obasanjo was Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007.
The 16 June 2022 claim was also repeated in other Facebook posts.
But did Obasanjo endorse Obi with such high praise?
No, the former president said no such thing
The original post didn’t give details of where or when Obasanjo was meant to have made the comment.
However, another Facebook post said Obasanjo tweeted it on his official Twitter handle.
And there is a Twitter account operating under the name of the former president, with this quote tweeted on 15 June 2022.
The tweet has been reposted over 13,000 times and “liked” 60,000 times.
Except it’s an imposter account.
Africa Check contacted Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s spokesperson, who said the former president didn’t make the remark and doesn’t have a Twitter account.
“He does not have a Twitter account, so he couldn’t have made such a post,” Akinyemi said.
Republish our content for free
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 guideAfrica 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