By Lisa Gwamzhi
Nigeria conducted Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25th, 2023, that sees the emergence of new people to occupy its presidency and national assembly.
The election conducted across the country, which was monitored by both foreign and local observers witnessed a large turn out of voters.
On Wednesday March 1st, 2023, Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mahmood Yakubu, announced the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is winner of the elections.
According to INEC, Mr. Tinubu received 8,794,726 (37%) of the votes in the election. The main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, received 6,984,520 (29%) of the votes, while third-place finisher Obi got 6,101,533 (25%).
Claim
On Thursday, a day after the presidential election results were announced, several messages were circulated on social media claiming there were series of unfortunate incidents including protests and deaths following the declaration of the winner.
A WhatsApp user shared a video in a group, claiming of eruption of crisis in Jos the plateau state capital. The video showed audio-visual images of people, particularly youths, vandalising shops and property, as well as setting cars ablaze.
A Facebook user with the name ‘Arole Baba 10 10 Tv 1‘ shared the same video here on his wall claiming it was the situation in Jos. Same user had initially posted the video on 27th of February, two days after the presidential election, claiming Igbos were being attacked in Maiduguri, Borno state.
A Tok-Tok user @ibgasma shared a video here with the inscription “Happening from Borno state in the northern part of the country. You can imagine the pain they’re going through too. All hopes are with INEC now. May God restore peace in this country at large.”
When the video was obtained, AFRICA PRIME NEWS reporter ran a reverse image on google. The result showed that the said crisis was in Maiduguri, Borno state, and not Jos, plateau state as claimed. The roads, capes and street lights shown in the video were different from what is in plateau state.
Verdict: False
The research shows that the said incident did not happen in Jos, Plateau state, but in Maiduguri, Borno state and was not connected to the emergence of Tinubu as President-elect in the Nigeria 2023 Presidential election..
