MULTIPLE posts circulating on social media claimed that former Nigerian vice president and presidential hopeful on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar is the owner of Mikano International Limited.
Established in 1993, Mikano International Limited is a Nigeria-based company that deals with Power Generation, Steel Fabrication, Electrical Products, and Solutions.
A Twitter user Ade of Akure with the username @CEO_Billion tweeted the claim with a caption:
“Atiku purchase NEPA and turn it to PHCN. Don’t forget he his the CEO of MIKANO Generator. How do you expect this country to move when d person giving u headache is still selling Paracetamol.His business must grow so No way our electricity will be good(sic).”
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The tweet has garnered more than 2,000 retweets and over 5,000 likes as of the 26th of May, 2022.
Another Twitter user simply identified at Jennifer with the username @jennifa2022, also tweeted the claim with a similar caption:
“Atiku founder of @AUNigeria, owner of Mikano (we no dey get power again) and so many personal projects this man wants to promote as a president…just for selfish reasons. Why not go home and enjoy the wealth u have piped from us?”
THE CLAIM
Atiku is the owner of Mikano International Limited.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Available public records show that the founder of Mikano International Limited is Mofid Karameh and not Atiku Abubakar contrary to the viral claim on social media.
A cursory look at the information on his LinkedIn account stated that Karameh is the chairman of the company since 1993 when it was founded.
Several media reports such as this and this also described Karameh as the Chief Executive Officer of the company.
A further search by The FactCheckHub shows that Atiku had earlier in 2017 debunked the claim in a series of tweets via his verified Twitter handle.
ALSO READ: Five false claims made by Atiku in the last two years
“Young friend, this is not true, but you tweet it all the same. I own bigger companies and they’re known publicly, why would I deny this one?” Atiku tweeted while responding to a Twitter user who alleged that the former VP was the owner of the company.
Atiku had described the claim as a rumor and further mentioned the list of companies he owns which include: “1. NICOTES (now Intels) founded in 1989. 2. Prodeco, 1996 2. My farm, 1982. 3. ABTI schools, 1992.”
THE VERDICT
The claim that Atiku Abubakar is the owner of Mikano International Limited is FALSE; as publicly available records show that the founder of the company is Mofid Karameh.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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