AN IMAGE of President Muhammadu Buhari holding a placard with inscriptions canvassing support for Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate for Nigeria’s 2023 general election has surfaced online.
The viral image, retrieved from WhatsApp, shows Buhari holding a banner card with inscriptions that read:
“NIGERIANS NEEDS HELP.
VOTE PETER OBI 2023″
Obi, a former Governor of Anambra state, had earlier on March 24, 2022, declared his ambition to run for the Nigerian presidency in 2023 on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Two months later, Obi announced his resignation and withdrawal from the PDP presidential primary and thereafter joined Labour Party (LP) where he eventually emerged as its presidential candidate for the 2023 election.
CLAIM
Image shows Buhari asking Nigerians to vote for Peter Obi in the 2023 election.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the image is FALSE, as the original image has been altered.
When the image was subjected to a Google Reverse Image Search, the results revealed that the original image shows when Buhari received the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms from a socio-political group, known as the Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors Network (NCAN) on September 11, 2018, ahead of Nigeria’s 2019 general elections, the Premium Times had reported.
Further checks show that the same image was posted on Nairaland on February 18, 2019, with an inscription that reads: “Nigeria needs help. Vote Atiku.”
Also, a check on Fotoforensics – an online tool for digital image analysis – revealed that the image was altered.
Buhari, who is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had, in a statement on June 6, 2022 clarified that he had no preferred candidate, The ICIR reported.
He made this known ahead of the party’s presidential primary held in Abuja between June 6 to June 8, 2022, where Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, emerged as its presidential candidate.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the image shows President Buhari asking Nigerians to vote for Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election is FALSE; as checks show that the image has been altered.
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