A claim that Ireti Kingibe is the first female senator to be elected in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) into Nigeria’s National Assembly (NASS) has circulated online.
This is coming following her emergence as the winner of the senatorial seat for the FCT in the NASS election held on February 25, 2023.
READ : False claim circulates that Ireti Kingibe is the first elected female FCT senator
Ireti Kingibe of the Labour Party (LP) was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) having scored 202,175 votes to beat a sitting Senator, Philip Aduda of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 100,544 votes.
Kingibe was among the newly elected lawmakers that received certificates of return from the INEC on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, The Punch reported.
In a tweet (now deleted), the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi had earlier made the same claim thus:
“A very hearty congratulations to Senator-elect Mrs @ireti _kingibe; the first elected female senator for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Her election is in keeping with our commitment to women and youth.”
On March 7, 2023, the Vanguard newspaper also reported the claim in their news report titled: “FCT’s first female senator presents COR to Peter Obi.”
A Twitter user, @IkukuomaC tweeted the same claim with another caption thus:
“The first ever Abuja female senator Mrs Ireti Kingibe showed our president Mr Peter Obi her certificate of return after unseating PDP senator Philip Aduba. Obidients let’s celebrate her !!!”
Another tweep, @NanaKazaure also tweeted the same claim with a caption that read: “First elected Female Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory under the @NgLabour.”
CLAIM
Ireti Kingibe is the first elected female senator of the FCT.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Checks revealed that Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe had previously held the position of the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2003, over two decades prior to the 2023 general election which Ireti Kingibe won.
Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe contested under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 and won.
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During her days in the Senate, she was a member of several committees which include Environment, Health, Women Affairs (chairman), Federal Character, Tourism & Culture and the FCT.
Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe is also a board Member of Cement Co Northern Nigeria PLC which specialized in the production and marketing of cement under the brand name “Sokoto Cement”.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Ireti Kingibe is the first elected female senator of the Federal Capital Territory is FALSE; findings show that there was Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe who served as FCT’s senator before Kingibe’s emergence.
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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