IMAGES WHICH show President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presenting a certificate to the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, are circulating online, particularly on X (formerly Twitter).
An X user,@adabanpegede with 1500 followers posted images of Obi with Tinubu on November 19 2024, with a caption written in Yoruba, “Akinyeye na fe joye, ni ile yi ko ni ile biyafraud ni”. When translated into English, the caption reads, “This moron wants to be elected, it is not in this country but in Biafra”.
The post has garnered 288 views, 3 comments, 10 reactions and 1 bookmark as of press time.
CLAIM
Images show Tinubu presenting certificate to Peter Obi
THE FINDINGS
Checks by THE EXPLAINER show that the images are manipulated using AI. When the images were subjected to Reverse Image Search, the results show the original images to be those of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi being presented with the Grand Commander of the Order of Nigeria honour by when he visited Nigeria on November 17, 2023.
News Invasion24 reported on the Indian Prime Minister’s certificate presentation by President Tinubu on November 18, 2024. “Nigeria conferred the Grand Commander of the order of the Niger (GCON) to the prime minister of India- Narenda Modi. The second highest national award was presented during his first official visit to the country on November 17, 2024”.
“Previously, the foreign dignitary who received the award was British Queen Elizabeth in 1969. The Indian Prime Minister arrived in Abuja on Sunday as part of a three-nation diplomatic tour, which includes Brazil and Guyana”, part of the report reads.
Further LiveMint also published images of Narendra Modi receiving a prestigious Nigerian award with a vow to strengthen India-Nigeria ties. The Explainer subjected the images to TrueMedia.org, an AI content detection tool, the result shows that the images are digitally manipulated with 99% confidence in them being generated by AI.
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The Explainer reviewed a couple of social media accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook belonging to Peter Obi, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his media aides but could not find related images and reports which stated Obi was presented a certificate by Tinubu.
THE VERDICT
The images that showed Tinubu presenting a certificate to Peter Obi are manipulated; findings indicate the original images come from the moment the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi was presented a certificate by Tinubu, not Peter Obi as claimed.
