By Pascal Ibe
Introduction
The former governor of Anambra State and the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has constantly been accused of supporting the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Obi has, in a series of videos and interviews, pointed out that he has no reason to see IPOB as a terrorist group despite the group being linked to deadly attacks in Nigeria’s South-east in the last decade.
IPOB is seeking the exit of the five states in Nigeria’s South-east and some part of South-south to be separated from Nigeria and to form a sovereign state, Biafra.
In an interview a few months ago, Obi promised that if elected president, he would release from prison the supreme leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism in 2025.
But despite his comments, which made it look like he was supporting them, there is no evidence that he had strong ties to members of the proscribed group.
Claim
An Image showing Ngọzi Orabueze attending a meeting with Obi in the United States has surfaced online.
Orabueze is a self-acclaimed Acting Prime Minister of the Biafran Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE), a group led by Simon Ekpa before he was arrested and jailed in Finland for terrorism in 2025.
BRGIE is an autopilot faction of the IPOB.
It is believed that Orabueze resides in the US.
An X user, @Onsogbu(Senior Pst Okezie James Atañi) posted (archived here) the image showing Orabueze sitting behind Obi, alongside others, in the meeting.
@Onsogbu wrote, “Peter Obi left Nigeria for a meeting in the USA and guess who was in attendance? “IPOB leader Ngozi Orabueze(circled).
“When I tell you guys that Peter Obi is IPOB AGENDA, you guys think I joke.
“You are IPOB and you want to be president of Nigeria. Thunder fire you Peter”
The post has generated mixed reactions from some people who believed that the image was not real, while others believed it was.
Another X user, @cryptichybee also posted the photo and wrote, “When we said Peter Obi is IPOB and IPOB is Peter Obi, y’all thought it was a joke Everything is playing out nicely.”
Verification
First, we checked the social media pages of Obi and found that his official pages shared similar images from the meeting on 14 September.
However, we discovered that the exact image of Orabueze attending the meeting was not among the photos the NDC presidential candidate posted on his pages.
Sharing photos, Obi wrote in part, “Yesterday, while in Washington, D.C., I had the privilege of meeting with a group of young Nigerian professionals — medical doctors and other healthcare professionals, educators, lawyers, engineers, technology experts, entrepreneurs and business leaders.”
This indicates that the image in which Orabueze appeared, which is being circulated on X was altered and photoshopped
But to make sure that the image was indeed altered, FACTWATCH Nigeria subjected the image to forensic analysis using different AI detection tools.
First, the result from DeepAI shows that the photo was 87 per cent created by AI.
Another AI detection tool, SightEngine further corroborates DeepAI’s result by confirming that the image was 99 per cent AI-generated.
Verdict
Findings have shown that the image of Orabueze attending a meeting with Peter Obi in the US is AI-generated, as similar images shared by Obi did not show her.
Also, AI detection tools confirmed that the image was AI-generated.
