Home Blog Page 158

FACT CHECK: Did Atiku hire US lobbyists to get him recognised as president or was the story fabricated?

FactCheckHub
-
0
FACT CHECK: Did Atiku hire US lobbyists to get him recognised as president or was the story fabricated?

By ‘Kunle ADEBAJO.

ON Tuesday, the Centre for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group based in Washington DC, reported that presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, is lobbying the United States to recognise him as Nigeria’s “authentic president”.

Basing its report on FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) filings, the Centre said Bruce Fein and his firm Fein & DelValle PLLC registered as foreign agents on Abubakar’s behalf to provide legal, consultancy, and public advocacy services over a 90-day period for $30,000.

“In the contract, Fein’s firm is explicit in promising to ‘obtain official recognition that you are the authentic President of Nigeria based on an accurate counting of legal ballots.’ The goal of the effort is straightforwardly described as ‘to convince the United States that your presidency would open a fresh and new chapter in Nigerian politics,’” it stated.

The following day, the Centre’s findings were shared by various local news agencies, including TheCable and Sahara Reporters.

Atiku’s swift dismissal

Reacting on Wednesday, Atiku through his spokesman, Paul Ibe, denied the reports and described them as “total fabrication” and “fake news” by the All Progressives Congress, which it alleged to have lying as its “only bragging rights of competence.”

“Since Atiku resisted pressure not to go to court, the APC has been behaving like a cat on hot bricks because the outcome of the 2019 elections has exposed and shattered the facade of their dubious integrity,” Ibe said in the statement. “The APC are behaving nervously like a thief living under the fear of being exposed and shamed; they are now using fake news against Atiku instead of focusing on defending themselves in the court.”

He added: “For a party that has broken the worst record in election rigging, the APC doesn’t have any iota of integrity to be taken seriously by anybody. Atiku’s court case has become their biggest burden because it exposes their integrity as a sham, and instead of defending their stolen mandate in court, they are now using fake news to divert public attention from the historic electoral heist they have committed against Nigerians.

“No amount of diversionary propaganda and fake news campaign by APC will stop Atiku Abubakar from continuing the court action he started to reclaim the stolen mandate.”

Our findings

The United States, in 1938, passed a law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). FARA requires agents representing foreign principals in a “political or quasi-political capacity” to disclose the nature and details of their contract with the other party.

Some of Atiku Abubakar’s contracts with US organisations. Source: fara.gov

All disclosures made are uploaded onto an online database by the US Department of Justice and made accessible to the public. On April 2, Fein & DelValle PLLC, Washington DC-based law firm, registered an active contract it has with “Atiku Abubakar and the People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria”, with registration number 6654.

In the part of the registration form requiring the nature and method of executing the agreement, Fein & DelValle stated that it will be providing “legal, consultancy and public advocacy services to encourage Congress and the President to forebear from final declaration and recognition of a winner of Nigeria’s February 23, 2019 presidential ejection until outstanding legal challenges to the initial Government of Nigeria assertion that incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari was the victor are impartially and independently resolved by the Supreme Court of Nigeria without political or military influence, intimidation, or manipulation; and, engage in public advocacy to applaud all candidates in the presidential election who are supporting and following the rule of law in resolving the outstanding electoral disputes.”

The law firm, according to the agreement, is expected to consult with Congress members towards passing House and Senate resolutions to restrain from a final recognition of a winner pending a fair determination of the legal issues, draft articles and op-eds “to spotlight the issues in Nigeria post-2019 presidential election and to promote the rule of law and due process in resolving electoral disputes in Nigeria”, and then “make television and other media appearances to engage in public advocacy discussions of these issues”.

It also attached a letter written to Atiku on March 20, where it said the terms of the contract include its representation of the PDP candidate “in the United States and in international forums to obtain official recognition that you are the authentic President of Nigeria based on an accurate counting of legal ballots cast on February 23, 2019.”

Fein & DelVille agreed to help Atiku secure recognition as the authentic President of Nigeria.

Asides this agreement, The ICIR also discovered an earlier contract between Atiku and John Barnett registered in February where the presidential candidate offered to pay the lobbyist $150,000 to facilitate a trip to Washington DC, the US capital.

Our verdict

Atiku Abubakar’s claim that the report about his contract with the US firm is a “total fabrication” is false.

Information on the US Justice Department’s FARA portal establish that such contract exists, where Atiku is seeking to be acknowledged abroad as “the authentic President of Nigeria” based on PDP’s grounds for challenging the declared results.

We brought our findings to the attention of Ibe on Thursday but the call was abruptly ended and another call placed to him immediately after was not answered. A text seeking to confirm whether the PDP has seen documents from the US government contradicting its press statement has also not been replied.

FACT CHECK: Did Buhari budget N79m to have his haircut in 2019?

FactCheckHub
-
0
FACT CHECK: Did Buhari budget N79m to have his haircut in 2019?

By ‘Kunle ADEBAJO.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari plans to spend up to N79 million in 2019 just to regularly get his haircut, goes a claim that has been repeatedly made on the Internet.

On Sunday, a Nigerian Twitter user, Funny Pikin (@funnypiki), wrote on the social media platform: “Buhari’s 2019 Hair Cut Budget is N79m. CJN Onnoghen’s life savings is N72m. And the CJN is corrupt… Head that didn’t pass WAEC.”

The tweet has been liked over 4,600 times and has been shared by over 3,300 users. A similar tweet shared by Adetutu Balogun (@Tutsy22) was liked 719 times and shared by 502 persons.

Walter Onnoghen, the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, is facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for false asset declaration and failing to declare some bank accounts operated by him. The federal government had alleged that it discovered Onnoghen’s accounts containing huge sums suspected to be proceeds of corruption. The total balance of all five accounts under scrutiny, as at December, was however found to be N43.5 million, after an official of Standard Chartered Bank testified in court.

Funny Pikin is not the first person to make this claim. Using different words, many other Nigerians have tweeted similar allegations and condemned the perceived double standards on the part of the presidency.

It is also not the first time a claim has been made about how much the president is proposing to pay his barber from the nation’s treasury. A similar claim also made the rounds last year, with the figure ranging from 78 million to 79 million or 86 million naira.

“Mr President, Nigerians will like to know the kind of hair cut or hairs that you want to cut for 78 million naira in your budget. A saint must not indulge in anything staining like you inserted in the budget,” Adeyemi Juwon (@juwon2017) had tweeted in June 2018. Another tweet by The Nigerian Wailers (@NGRWailers) stated instead that N79 million was budgeted for the exercise that year.

Lere Olayinka, former media aide of former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, also tweeted in March 2018 that N79 million was the sum budgeted by the president for his haircut.

An Abuja-based barber, Alfred Umoh, according to a Naij report, even offered to “give the President of the federal republic of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari a free one year haircut and treatment… to help the federal government to save N86 million budgeted for the President’s haircut in the 2018 appropriation act”.

How true are these claims?

The contents of the federal budgets prepared and approved annually are accessible to the public, and budget items that directly benefit the president are often classified under the heading “State House Operations – President”.

In 2018, there is no part of this section that mentions haircut. The budget only covers local and international travel, foodstuff, refreshment, honorarium and sitting allowance, publicity and advertisements, and finally postage and courier services.

The contexts under which the word “hair” appeared in the document included youth and women empowerment in form of teaching hair making, provision of hair clippers and dryers to victims of community clashes, training youth in hair dressing, and so on. Likewise, in the proposed 2019 budget, the same pattern was repeated.

The allowances and fringe benefits allowed for the president, according to the certain political, public and judicial office holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2008, do not include money for haircuts. The law only provides for 17 items including accommodation, utilities, domestic staff, entertainment, medical allowance, leave allowance, hardship allowance, among others.

Conclusion

It is not true that President Buhari budgeted N79 million, or any amount at all, expressly for having his haircut in the 2019 fiscal year. Claims that he budgeted a similar amount in 2018 are also false, as no such item is contained in the budget.

Report of Nigeria topping Africa contradicts FG’s claims on local rice production

FactCheckHub
-
0
Report of Nigeria topping Africa contradicts FG’s claims on local rice production

By ‘Kunle ADEBAJO.

IN JULY 2014, Akinwumi Adesina, then minister of agriculture and rural development, predicted that Nigeria would become Africa’s largest rice exporter ‘in five years’, that is 2019, based on investments in farming and milling.

But recent news about Nigeria becoming the largest producer of rice on the continent cannot be said to be a  fulfilment of this forecast, but a contradiction that has exposed as lie the previous claims by the federal government.

Audu Ogbeh, the current minister of agriculture and rural development, said in May that the country’s rice paddy production is between 5.8 and 6 million tonnes, which had led the government to save up to five million dollars every day. He also said the population of rice farmers in the country has risen from 5 to 12.2 million.

“By the end of this farming season we should be approaching 8 million tons of paddy which will give us roughly 6.5 million tonnes of processed rice and we hope that by this time next year we should be targeting 9 million tonnes of paddy,” Ogbeh said.

A year earlier in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, president of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Aminu Goronyo, credited the FG’s Anchor Borrowers Programme for the increase in production.

“The consumption rate now is 7.9 million tonnes and the production rate has increased to 5.8 tonnes per annum,’’ he said.

AfricaRice gives a much lower figure

The Africa Rice Centre, a pan-African intergovernmental association and agricultural research organisation, has provided a much lower figure of the quantity of rice produced in Nigeria annually.

The centre has disclosed that Nigeria only produces 4 million tonnes of rice a year in contrast to 5.8 and 6 million tonnes claimed from the federal government and RIFAN.

Speaking to The Nation Newspaper earlier this week, Harold Roy-Macauley, Director-General of AfricaRice, revealed this fact and said Nigeria has supplanted Egypt in its position as Africa’s largest rice producer.

Egypt, he explained, was producing 4.3 tonnes annually but deliberately reduced production by nearly 40 per cent in 2019 in order to “preserve water resources”.

“We cannot do anything else in light of the limited amounts of water we have. We have to grow less rice to save the water for other uses. Egypt is water-poor already and it cannot keep growing crops that need huge amounts of water,” Abdelatif Khalid, Egypt’s head of the irrigation department, had clarified in March 2018.

AfricaRice isn’t the only int’l organisation that has given rice production figures for Nigeria, which contradict the stats by the Nigerian government officials.

Latest figures, according to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), state that Nigeria produces 3.78 million metric tonnes—not far from AfricaRice’s 4 million, and imports 3 million metric tonnes. The WASDE report is prepared regularly by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and approved by the World Agricultural Outlook Board.

In November, information minister Lai Mohammed described the USDA’s report as “fake” and “absolutely false”, while making reference to figures from the Thailand Rice Exporters Association.

The minister also said “the records are very clear as to the importation of rice”, but the federal government has not made public comprehensive, official reports detailing how much rice is imported from different countries, how much is locally produced and where, and how much is smuggled into Nigeria.

Misinterpreted and celebrated

As soon as it was published, the report from The Nation Newspaper was latched onto by various individuals and organisations.

The headline reads: ‘Nigeria overtakes Egypt as the largest rice producer in Africa’, but many interpreted it to mean Nigeria’s local rice production has improved thanks to government policies, not Egypt’s decision to cut down production.

The link was shared on Twitter, for instance, by @APCNigeria, a “support account” for the ruling party and President Muhammadu Buhari.

Also, sharing the same link on the social media platform, media aide to the president, Lauretta Onochie, commented: “Nigeria overtakes Egypt as ‘largest rice producer in Africa’ And we have not entered that  we just voted for. Hmmm, .”

Video showing Saraki being booed after election is FALSE

FactCheckHub
-
0
Video showing Saraki being booed after election is FALSE

A VIDEO claiming that Bukola Saraki was booed by some people after the February 23 presidential election is not true.

The video, which was shared on the 23rd of February by the Twitter handle @DOlusegun, was captioned”Saraki leaves Ilorin for Abuja after a disgraceful showing at the Polls”. The post had gained an engagement of just two retweets and 295 views by 03:50 pm, February 24.

The video, however, went viral after Sahara Reporters shared the video on its verified Twitter handle, @SaharaReporters.

Sahara Reporters shared the video with caption: “VIDEO: #OTOGE: Residents Of Ilorin Mock Saraki, Call Him Thief After Saturday Elections”.

The post was shared today, February 24 at about 08:24 am and has garnered more than 22,400 views, 540 retweets, and 918 likes at 03:50 pm, February 24.

CrossCheck Nigeria, through its findings, confirmed that the earliest version of the video predates the Saturday election and captioned: “Bukola Saraki driving out of the Ilorin Airport yesterday” (February 21). The video was shared on February 22.

The video actually showed that Saraki was booed but not after the presidential election as claimed by @DOlusegun and Sahara Reporters.

Man caught with PVCs is ex-officio member of PDP in Mpkat Enin LGA of Akwa Ibom state

FactCheckHub
-
0
Man caught with PVCs is ex-officio member of PDP in Mpkat Enin LGA of Akwa Ibom state

By Crosscheck Nigeria.

A picture of men allegedly caught with PVCs in Akwa Ibom state is making the rounds on social media, with supporters of both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pointing accusing fingers at each other over the picture. 

CrossCheck Nigeria has confirmed that one of the men in the photos is Aniete Isoenang, an ex-officio member of the PDP in the Mpkat Enin local government area of Akwa Ibom state.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide on New Media, Laurretta Onochie, shared the picture on her Twitter page, saying INEC should investigate who the men are.

She claimed that about 600 of such PVCs were bought with N1million in Delta state.

In one report, it is claimed that the men in the photo are APC thugs while in another, it is alleged that the men belong to the PDP in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom state.

Different versions of the claim have been shared over 700 times on Twitter and Facebook.

CrossCheck Nigeria (CCN) carried out its investigation and here’s what we found:

  1. A reverse Image search by CrossCheck Nigeria shows that the picture has been used by supporters of the two main political parties, the PDP and the APC.
  2. When CrossCheck Nigeria initially called PDP’s spokesperson, Ini Ememobong, in Akwa Ibom State, he denied that the men in the picture belonged to the party in the state.
  3. However, days later, when he was called again by another reporter known to him, Ememobong confirmed that one of the men in the photograph is, indeed, Aniete Isoenang, an ex-officio member of the party in Mpkat Enin local government area of Akwa Ibom state.
  4. He also confirmed that Isoenang was arrested and paraded by the police but alleged that the PVCs were planted on him by the police to hang charges on him. CrossCheck Nigeria can neither confirm nor deny this allegation.

Buhari did not vote for Atiku

FactCheckHub
-
0
Buhari did not vote for Atiku

By Crosscheck Nigeria.

A Facebook page, Nigeria’s Peoples Parliament posted a digitally altered photo of President Muhammadu Buhari raising his ballot paper which showed he had voted for the People’s Democratic Party, at this year’s presidential election.

CrossCheck Nigeria confirmed that the Facebook group posted an altered photo of President Buhari through the following checks:

  1. CrossCheck Nigeria, through an image reverse search on the photo, confirms picture was dug out from the 2015 presidential election.
  2. The original also shows that President had voted for his party, All Progressives Congress, at the election, and not PDP.
  3. At Daura, Katsina State where President Buhari visited to cast his vote for this year’s election, he was dressed in a dark blue native attire.

The picture was posted on February 23 at 05:20 pm. It has since gained 164 likes, 178 comments and 103 shares bringing it to a total of 445 interactions.

Video showing Lagos youths chanting “Ole” on Buhari is NOT TRUE

FactCheckHub
-
0
Video showing Lagos youths chanting “Ole” on Buhari is NOT TRUE

By Crosscheck Nigeria

THE claim in a video showing that President Muhammadu Buhari was booed and greeted with chants of ‘ole’, meaning thief in Yoruba language, by youths in Lagos during the presidential rally is FALSE. The video was doctored to validate the claim.

The claim has been shared across various social media platforms by influencers and users.

CrossCheck Nigeria, a collaboration of newsrooms in Nigeria which includes The ICIR, confirms that the claim is FALSE. Though the visual is real and factual, the audio was doctored and imported into it.

Posted by Paul Ibe, spokesperson to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, and Reno Omokri at about 04:53 pm and 05:27 pm respectively on their Twitter handles on February 9.

Ibe’s post reads: “This was how youths on Adeniji Adele Road welcomed President Buhari to Lagos: “Ole! Ole!! Ole!!!” For non-Yoruba speaking persons “Ole” means thief in English, “Barawo” in Hausa and “Onye Ohi” in Igbo You may add your own language. #PMBinLagos”

Omokri’s post reads: “WATCH and SHARE: This video is the reason why Bola Tinubu was insulting Obasanjo and @Atiku today at APC’s poorly attended rally. Lagos youths shouted Ole! at President @MBuhari. Lagosians have suffered under Buhari and won’t listen to #TinubuTheAfonja WATCH, COMMEND and SHARE”

An earlier version of the video shared by Jubril A. Gawat, @Mr_JAGs on his Twitter handle revealed that the youths were seen chanting and shouting the popular ‘Sai Baba’ and ‘4plus4’ slogans of the APC in support of the President.

The tweet reads: “Mr President @MBuhari in my area today, Adeniji Adele road, Lagos Island on his way back from the Oba’s Palace .. Boys yapa … No be shere shere .. #PMBinLagos #BuhariIssaGoal”

He posted the video at about 12:28 pm, February 9, which is 4 hours 25 minutes before Ibe shared his own. His post has the traction of 40 thousand views, 956 retweets, and 1,886 likes as of 03:25 pm, February 10.

Paul Ibe’s post has since garnered 36 thousand views, 757 retweets, and 1,881 likes while Omokri’s post has 31 thousand views, 1,208 retweets and 1, 708 likes as of 03:25 pm, February 10.

Investigated CrossCheck Nigeria

Scandalising Buhari: Meme showing Julian Assange posing with UK newspaper is doctored

FactCheckHub
-
0
Scandalising Buhari: Meme showing Julian Assange posing with UK newspaper is doctored

By Crosscheck Nigeria

AN image of Julian Assange holding UK newspaper The Guardian has been doctored to look like the headline says that President Muhammadu Buhari has “massive plans to islamise Nigeria.” CrossCheck Nigeria has confirmed that the headline is not real: the original photo shows Assange holding up an article about the Afghanistan war logs in 2010.

The image has been shared by various individuals and groups on WhatsApp.

CNN confirmed the photo has been doctored through the following checks:

  1. A google search of “Julian Assange holding up The Guardian” returned a nearly identical looking image of Assange holding the newspaper with the headline “Massive leak of secret files exposes true Afghan war.” The photo was taken by Leon Neal for AFP/Getty Images.
  2. CNN, as well as many other publications, have used the photo, reporting that it was taken on July 26, 2010, a day after Wikileaks released Afghan war logs.
  3. The online version of the original article from The Guardian can be found here, posted on July 25, 2010.

Video of ICC prosecutor asking Nigerians to refrain from violence is old

FactCheckHub
-
0
Video of ICC prosecutor asking Nigerians to refrain from violence is old

By Crosscheck Nigeria.

A Facebook video showing Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling on Nigerians to refrain from violence ahead of the election is original and factual, although it is dated. It was released few days before the 2015 Nigerian election.

The video was originally posted on the ICC’s website and YouTube channel, as well as in audio format on March 16, 2015 – twelve days before the 2015 Presidential election (held on March 28, 2015).

Its transcription in English and French was also posted on the ICC website with the title: “Statement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, ahead of elections in Nigeria: “I reiterate my call to refrain from violence.”

As of 3:00 pm on February 7, 2019, the 1: 23-minute video had garnered 6,696 views on its YouTube channel with 32 likes and 6 dislikes.

The video was reposted on Facebook by Facebook user Chidi Cali on February 5, 2019, with the following caption: “CTA “BREAKING News!!! 2019: International Criminal Court (ICC) Warned That they Will Prosecute Any Nigerian Govt official, Cabals, Securities, Politicians that Cause a Break Down Of Law & order or loss of lives. (2015 Intervention) – Chidi Cali”

The post has since garnered 13,000 views. Also, it has been shared 804 times and garnered 25 comments with 59 reactions.

Keyamo DID NOT comment on Buhari’s memory loss

FactCheckHub
-
0
Keyamo DID NOT comment on Buhari’s memory loss

By Crosscheck Nigeria.

A Facebook page alleged that Festus Keyamo, director of Strategic Communications for the Buhari 2019 Presidential Campaign Organisation, said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s “loss of memory was normal”. Keyamo has denied it.

“Of course it is fake news. You know these politicians. Anything that does not lead you to a credible link is fake news,” Keyamo told CrossCheck Nigeria.

Shared by Facebook page, ‘Nigeria Politics Today,’ on February 6, the post reads: “BUHARI’S MEMORY LOSS IS NOT TOO BAD. – Keyamo. President Buhari’s Loss of Memory is Normal, Even Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed Lost Their Memories At Some Point” – Festus Keyamo Reacting Buhari’s Falling Memory and Gaffes.”

CrossCheck Nigeria found no evidence that this quote is from Keyamo.

Keyamo also responded to the rumour on his Twitter account. “This is classic FAKE NEWS (no single link to a CREDIBLE source),” he said.

As at 2:50 p.m. on Thursday, February 7, the post had garnered over 1,472 shares and 1,145 comments.

1...157158159...166Page 158 of 166