A post on social media claimed that five hundred thousand Nigerians on death row in Singapore have been released after Peter Obi’s intervention.
The post was initially shared by a social media user who cloned the account of Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
The claim is FALSE.
Our Checks revealed that the cloned account with username @DattiYusufahmed and profile name Dr. Yusuf Datti Ahmed has been renamed to Ejike Ofoegbu and @Ejikeofoegbu1 as its new username.
The post appeared on the renamed Twitter account before it was eventually deleted. It was also published as breaking news on a news website by the name Dailyexcessive.
The Findings:
Using Yandex, a reverse image search on one of the pictures showing prisoners dressed in brown, looking out behind bars, revealed that the picture was taken at Rwanda’s Gitarama prison 5, where Hutu prisoners were kept.
According to an official of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the commission is not aware of such development.
“NIDCOM does not have any information on this matter at the moment,” the official said
Going through the article on AJMC, A further Twitter search showed that the official Twitter handle of the Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate is @dattibabaahmed and not @DattiYusufahmed.
On August 1, at a media briefing in Abuja, Datti Baba-Ahmed disassociated himself from fake social media accounts attributed to him. He added that several social media accounts across different platforms were opened by suspected impostors without his knowledge or approval.
Conclusion:
The claim that Peter Obi’s intervention led to the release of five hundred thousand Nigerians on death row in Singapore is false.
