By Pascal Ibe
Claim
“All these people are just for stomach infrastructure. They know the truth, but they would rather stand by who pays more than stand with the truth,” Nicholas Mmadụabuchi, an X user, commented on a recent video of Dino Melaye heaping praises on Peter Obi.
This and many other similar comments followed a recent post by an X user, @OjiUgo_nwa, who shared the video clip of Melaye, a former senator who represented the Kogi West district in the Senate, asking Nigerians to support Obi.
In the clip that @OjiUgo_nwa posted on X, the user claimed that the former senator who is a strong supporter of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, had decided to endorse Obi for the presidency.
The caption on the video, “Watch: Dino Melaye just endorsed Peter Obi and the OK ticket.
“These people know the truth but prefer to play the politics of money for personal gain,” the post further read.
The election posters of Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, were added in the video, suggesting further, that the video from Melaye was for Nigerians to support the Obi/Kwankwaso (OK) ticket in 2027.
Also, another user, @Obitrize_042, shared the same video and asked, “Did Dino Melaye just endorse Peter Obi in this video, or am I dreaming?
“Someone please wake me up.”
This claim also appeared here.
Verifying the claim
To ascertain if the video was recently from Melaye to canvass support for Obi, we did a keyword search on Google and found out that some news websites reported that the former senator made the comments in July 2022.
According to the publication, while praising Obi for having good leadership qualities, Melaye went on to say that Atiku is the best option for a Nigerian president in 2023, adding that Obi’s time has yet to come.
By further conducting a Google Lens Image Reverse Search using a screenshot from the clip, we found a long and original video clip posted on YouTube by Melaye on 1 July 2022.
This means that some people cut out only the part of the former senator praising Obi and then recycled it as recent to mislead the public.
In the original video, Melaye advised Obi to wait for his time.
He said: “Peter Obi is one of the finest Nigerians who is intellectually mobile, and administratively sagacious, a great Nigerian and has a great potential of being Nigeria’s president in the nearest future.
“ I celebrate you Peter Obi, and I celebrate your movement. I celebrate your conscientisation of the Nigerian youth and the public on governance.
“But I want to advise, your time is not now because you’ve to wait for your time. I’ve listened to your postulations. I’ve listened to your arguments, deliveries and campaigns, and 90% of your campaign is dwelling on reducing the cost of governance.”
Verdict
The claim that Melaye has endorsed the Ok ticket for the 2027 presidential election is MISLEADING. Findings indicated that the clip was from 2022 and was manipulated too.
