AN X (formerly Twitter) user, @TheSerahIbrahim shared a post with a photo of some wigs in a courtroom on September 6, 2023 alongside a caption that reads:
Justice Ugo has not raised his head since the beginning of this judgement. His head been bowed low. His eyes are extremely red, possibly from either crying or lack of sleep. Justice Bolaji has been sitting like she built the courtroom, looking extremely stern and nodding all through like “if you disagree, come and beat me. Justice Adah has the document in front of me, visibly seen reading along and following up to ensure no mistakes in the rubbish that is being read. Justice Bello looks totally uninterested and uncomfortable. LET IT BE KNOWN We believed and we trusted.
The photo was being shared while sitting of the presidential election petition court (PEPC) was underway.
It could be recalled that both the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidates Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar were not satisfied with the election results which gave victory to the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the February poll and had gone to seek redress in court.
There had been a series of court proceedings and the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) had set September 6 2023 as the Judgement Day after it had initially set September 16, 2023.
Since the post was made, it has garnered about 300,000 views, over 1,400 reposts and more than 2,700 likes as at the time of filing this report.
CLAIM
Photo shows judges presiding at Nigeria’s presidential election petition court on Wednesday, September 6, 2023.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by the FactCheckHub revealed that the claim is MISLEADING.
Checks conducted using Google Reverse Image search show that the image has been on the internet for some months prior to Wednesday’s presidential election petition court (PEPC) sitting.
The search led our researcher to several samples of the same image used as featured image on news reports by media outlets few months ago and it was dated as far back as May 2023.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the photo shows judges presiding at Nigeria’s presidential election petition court on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 is MISLEADING; the photo is from one of the previous sittings of the presidential election petition court few months ago.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
 user, @TheSerahIbrahim shared a photo of some wigs in a courtroom on September 6 2023 alongside a caption that states:){kind=link}