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No, Peter Obi did not steal another person’s photo from Berlin roundtable

Nurudeen Akewushola
Nurudeen Akewushola
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Peter Obi speaking at the ECFR event/ Credit: Peter Obi on X

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FOLLOWING his participation in a roundtable session organised by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin on July 13, presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, shared four photographs from the event on his social media platforms.

However, one of the images appeared unusually processed, prompting speculation online that Obi never attended the event and that the photographs were artificially generated.

Amid the controversy, an X user, @enitandev, shared an altered version of the photographs in which a white man appeared in the position occupied by Obi in the original image.

The user wrote: “Dear Saint @PeterObi. It has gotten this bad that you are stealing other people’s pictures and editing them.

“The cleanest and most honest politician of all time is posting fake pictures of an event he didn’t attend. Clock it.”

As of July 18, 2026, the post had generated over 400 reposts and more than 600 likes.

CLAIM

Peter Obi used fake or AI-generated photographs to falsely claim he attended an ECFR event in Berlin.

screenshot of the viral misleading picture shared to claim Obi did not attend the ECFR program

FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

Checks were conducted using facial recognition search tools. The supposed ‘original’ version circulated by critics, which replaced Obi with an unidentified white man, yielded no verifiable records linking the individual to the event. This suggests the image was digitally altered or generated.

A visual examination of the edited image also reveals inconsistencies. In one frame showing participants seated during the discussion, most attendees appear naturally engaged in the session and unaware of the camera. By contrast, the man inserted in the altered version appears unusually positioned and posed for the photograph, creating the impression that he was superimposed onto the image.

The rest of the speakers appear to focus on the discussion while the man inserted appears to be posing for camera

More importantly, independent evidence confirms that Obi attended the event.

The FactCheckHub found that on July 13, ECFR Africa shared a lower-quality version of one of the disputed photographs, showing Obi and other participants posing after the session. This indicates that the photograph originated from a real event and was not fabricated.

Low quality version of the image shared by ECFR Africa on July 13.

Further checks by The FactCheckHub confirmed that Peter Obi attended the event. A statement addressing the controversy was published on the official X account of ECFR Africa, which The FactCheckHub cross-checked and verified as authentic through links provided on the European Council on Foreign Relations’ official website. The statement read:

“In the past days, numerous concerns were raised on social media concerning the authenticity of images that were taken at an ECFR event, hosted by the ECFR Africa programme, and Mr Peter Obi being one of the attendees.

We hereby expressly confirm that the event with Peter Obi took place on 13 July 2026 at our Berlin office. It was an informal exchange with selected guests on Mr Obi’s vision on the future of Nigeria.

We distance ourselves from all allegations that have been directed at us on social media and via e-mail in recent days.”

The statement was signed by Alex Vines, Director of the ECFR Africa Programme.

Further verification by The FactCheckHub also identified video footage of Obi speaking at the event. The footage, shared by @NjenjeMedia on July 17, 2026, shows him discussing Nigeria’s democratic development beyond 2027, international relations, economic growth, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

While one or more of the photographs shared by Obi may have been enhanced to improve image quality, there is no evidence that the event itself was fabricated.

The controversy is similar to an incident reported by The FactCheckHub in January 2026 involving a photograph from President Bola Tinubu’s meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Paris. That image attracted criticism after social media users noticed a Grok watermark.

Presidential aide Temitope Ajayi later explained that the photograph had been enhanced using AI tools to improve image quality after being taken on a mobile phone, not generated from scratch.

Modern AI tools can enhance photographs by improving sharpness, lighting, resolution, and background quality without altering the underlying event captured in the image.

VERDICT

The claim that that Peter Obi fabricated or AI-generated photographs to falsely claim attendance at an ECFR event in Berlin is MISLEADING. Independent evidence, including photographs released by ECFR, a statement from the organisation, and video footage from the event, confirms that Obi participated in the session. While some images may have been digitally enhanced, the event itself took place and Obi was present.

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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 nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

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