A fake quote attributed to the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore applauding his counterpart Peter Obi of the Labour Party has surfaced online.
According to the quote, Sowore described Peter Obi as a humble man despite him being from an opposition party in this year’s Nigerian election.
The quote reads:
“Whenever other presidential candidates see me, they will ignore me as nobody because I have no money.
Peter Obi always walks to me to greet me anytime he sees me. Even though he is my opponent, I will not deny the fact that he is a humble man.”
A Twitter user, @UzomaPreciousF1 tweeted the quote and it has generated more than 1,300 retweets and over 5,000 likes as of Saturday, 28th of January, 2023.
READ : Fact-checking Sowore’s claims at ‘The Candidates’ presidential town hall series
A Facebook Page, South East Nigeria also posted the claim and it generated more than 500 likes, over 60 shares and more than 50 comments as of Saturday, 28th of January, 2023.
Another Twitter user, @IgweOdysse also tweeted the claim.
CLAIM
Sowore authored quotes praising Peter Obi for being a humble man.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by FactCheckHub show that the quote was fabricated.
The FactCheckHub observed that none of the social media users who posted the texts referenced their source(s) publicly, thus raising a red flag.
Also, a keyword search on Google Search did not reveal anywhere or when Sowore made the statement.
Moreover, no credible media organisation in the country reported the quote attributed to Sowore.
READ ALSO : FACT CHECK: Did a news report describe Sowore as gravely ill?
When the FactCheckHub contacted Sowore via WhatsApp, he disowned the viral quote and affirmed that it’s “FALSE”.
Sowore further also disowned it via his Twitter handle.
I never made any utterance(s) attributed to me here by @UzomaPreciousF1 about @PeterObi! #WeCantContinueLikeThis pic.twitter.com/s2itNbspgb
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) January 23, 2023
THE VERDICT
The claim that Sowore authored the viral quote attributed to him is FALSE; he debunked it when contacted.
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.
