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Another ‘Buhari is dead’ post uses impostor Twitter account as evidence

A video posted on Facebook accuses Nigerian vice president Yemi Osinbajo of betraying Christians by failing to announce president Muhammadu Buhari’s “death” and expose “the person in Aso Rock”.

“Buhari is dead. We are just being duped, #endfakebuhari,” the video’s caption reads. It has been shared over 1,700 times

The video’s narrator claims that Buhari died long ago but was replaced by a lookalike named “Maj-Gen Jubril El-Sudani El-Okene”. It shows a screenshot of a Twitter profile with the same name.

“Jubril El-Sudani is the person at Aso Rock,” the narrator says. “You think that Buhari is not talking. He is talking o. The real Buhari is dead. So the figure-head Buhari El-Sudani Jubril is talking on his Twitter, his real Twitter, that is what you are seeing now. So, to let you know that the Buhari you voted for in 2015 is gone, that is why I am giving you this.”

Is there any truth to these wild accusations? 



Buhari body double claims resurface with #EndSARS protests


During the recent #EndSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria, an old rumour that Buhari died in London in 2017 or 2018 has resurfaced. In those years, the president repeatedly visited the UK capital for treatment of an undisclosed ailment.

Versions of the rumour surfacing online in October 2020 include a video in which the narrator, who claims to be a Nigerian journalist, says he witnessed Buhari’s burial in Saudi Arabia after he died of heart disease in a hospital in Newcastle in the UK on 19 February 2017.

Another video shows #EndSARS protests in London where some of the protesters can be heard chanting “Buhari is dead, tell Nigeria now”.

Buhari debunked rumours of his death in December 2018, a few months before he was re-elected in February 2019.

Impostor Twitter account


The Twitter account shown in the video, claimed to be that of Buhari’s body double, is an impostor account.

The name on the account is Maj-Gen Jubril El-Sudani El-Okene. The profile photo shows a younger Buhari in military uniform, and the account handle is @anehi2008. 

We traced the handle to a blog titled Anehi, Nigeria, which focuses on “Islam, Ebira, Engineering, Education, Environment, Governance in Nigeria”. Each blog post has this credit: “A. S. M Jimoh. (The writer can be reached on [email protected] and he is @anehi2008 on twitter).”

The Twitter handle @anehi2008 belongs to a writer identified as ASM Jimoh.

Content published by the Twitter account or repeated in viral videos is not proof that president Buhari is dead and has been replaced by a body double. Allwell Okpi




 

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