Voters in Nigeria’s Edo state elected a new governor on September 21, 2024 — an event that led to false and misleading claims on social media. Photos purportedly showing disruptions in certain parts of the state circulated online while other posts shared official-looking documents claiming to show major candidates stepping down to endorse their opponents. However, the claims were based on unrelated pictures from previous elections held in Nigeria in 2019 and 2023 while the party documents announcing the withdrawals of various candidates were hoaxes.
“Breaking, PDP’s Asue Ighodalo steps down for Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata,” reads the caption of a post on X published a day before the Edo state election in Nigeria’s south-south region.
The post includes an image of a letter purportedly announcing that Asua Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for governor, had withdrawn from the election.
The notice, written on what appeared to be a party letterhead, said Ighodalo would instead back the Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata.
The post has been shared more than 2,000 times since it was published on September 20, 2024.
The claim was also published here on Facebook.
Tit-for-tat
Ighodalo’s rival found himself the subject of similar rumours, also on the eve of the election.
Accounts on X claimed that Akpata was, in fact, the one who had stepped down and endorsed Ighodalo.
Similar means were used to support the claim: a formal announcement purportedly issued on a party letterhead.
However, the claims were false.
Hoax documents
Checks on Ighodalo’s X and Facebook pages showed he did not announce his withdrawal on social media.
An official statement issued by the PDP hours before the election described the news as “fake” and said Ighodalo “is very much in the … Edo State Governorship election race” (archived here).
September 20, 2024
Press Statement
Edo Guber: Ighodalo Very Much in the Race, Will Trounce APC in Saturday’s Election- PDP Taunts APC’s Over Fake News
…Says APC, Okpebholo Jittery, in Mortal Fear of DefeatThe Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismisses the fake news being…
— Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) September 20, 2024
Akpata also denied the claims targeting him, telling journalists that news of his withdrawal from the governorship race was “far from the truth” (archived here).
“Some of you may have been privy to documents that have been making the rounds on the internet which purports that I … have decided not to run for governor. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I am in this race. I remain in this race because that is what Edo people need today,” he said.
The final list of candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, showed that Ighodalo and Akpati were both cleared to contest in the election (archived here).
Monday Okpebholo, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner (archived here).
During the 2023 general election, AFP Fact Check also debunked false claims about candidates withdrawing and endorsing their opponents.
Misleading pictures
As polls opened in Edo state, photos were circulated on social media claiming that voting had been disrupted in some areas.
“APC-rented thugs disrupting elections in Benin, Edo state capital while voting is ongoing,” reads an X post shared more than 1,000 times.
Pictures included in the post show voting sheets and storage boxes littered on the ground.
One of the images also appeared in another post by the same X account. This time, the disruption was said to have happened in Edo north.
“BREAKING: They have written results in Edo North and the Edo North people rejected the election results,” reads the post shared more than 300 times.
Both posts were published by “Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization”, an X account that shares political content and has more than 450,000 followers.
The images, however, are old.
Recycled images
By conducting a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that all the images were taken during elections held in Nigeria in 2019 and 2023.
The first photo, showing two women standing amid scattered voting sheets and ballot boxes, was published by Nigerian Eye on its liveblog during the 2019 presidential election (archived here).
Nigerian Eye reported that the incident took place in Ogori-Magongo in Kogi state, where thugs destroyed ballot papers.
The BBC published the second photo as part of its reporting on the 2019 election saying it showed an incident that happened in Isolo, Lagos state (archived here).
The third photo, showing people on a street with ballot boxes and voting sheets scattered on the ground, was published on X by Sahara Reporters on February 25, 2023, during the presidential election (archived here).
AFP Fact Check debunked numerous claims during the 2023 Nigerian presidential election here.
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