A photo showing the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 general election, Peter Obi and the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, with alcoholic drinks on their table has surfaced online.
The photo is circulating alongside another one which showed the duo taking a nap at the Ikeja Airport in Lagos, with a claim that both of them were drunk and caught sleeping at the Airport.
The image shows four bottles of Hero beer directly in front of Obi and a bottle of Heineken and a glass cup in front Rhodes-Vivour on the shared table.
READ : GRV, other prominent Twitter accounts share misleading video about Niger coup
A Twitter user, @Gasbytweet tweeted the claim with a caption that read: “How it started and how it ended. Drunks”
The tweet was also shared here.
A Facebook user, Zara Onyinye posted the photo with a caption thus:
HOW IT STARTED AND HOW IT ENDED
PICTURE NO DEY LIE
OBI NA 419
My uncle Obi was not sleeping at all. It was all stages managed
This Man started staging this film after he took his hero beer and got high somehow …
No amount of this yahoo yahoo strategies, campaigns on ethnicity, and religious bigotry can make him the next President of Nigeria.
I did not hate you but his lies is just so much
I sympathize with those covering under race and ecclesiastical small-mindedness supporting Peter Obi and asserting he will be the messiah to unravel Nigeria’s difficulty, records of Peter Obi’s divisiveness, looting from the treasury, and ineptitude then as Governor of Anambra are intact
CLAIM
Photo shows Peter Obi and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour with alcoholic drinks on their table.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
When the FactCheckHub conducted a Google Reverse Image search on the photo, the result shows that the image has been manipulated.
Further checks show that the original image had been shared online, among several others, by a Twitter user, Pearls on February 17, 2023 with a caption thus:
“BREAKING: The Incoming President of Nigeria, HE Peter Obi, is currently meeting with the Incoming Governor of Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor at Ikeja Airport!”
Another Tweep, @Morris_Monye tweeted the original images same day with a caption that read: “Happening now at Lagos Airport. Peter Obi in a chit-chat with Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (Incoming Governor of Lagos state under LP).”
READ ALSO : Photo does not show Peter Obi, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour drunk at Lagos airport
In the original image, no bottle was seen on the table of the duo contrary to what the doctored version looked like.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the photo shows Obi and Rhodes-Vivour with alcoholic drinks on their table is MISLEADING; findings revealed that the image has been doctored.
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.
