By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

The 2027 presidential election is less than three months away, and the three main candidates are preparing to showcase themselves to Nigerians.

The main candidates are President Bola Tinubu, who is seeking re-election to office under the All Progressives Congress; Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State under the New Nigeria Democratic Congress; and Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President, under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Supporters of each presidential candidate have continued to raise the tempo on social media through banter and maligning each other’s candidates. By doing so, misinformation became inevitable

Claim

An X user, @UchePOkoye (Anambra 1st son), posted a video which claim to show Atiku declaring support for Tinubu.

@UchePOkoye posted the video on 19 October and wrote, “Atiku has declared his support for Tinubu; only Peter Obi and Kwankwaso are the major opposition!”

The post generated over 50,000 views and had comments from people who expressed their responses.

While others criticised Atiku for allegedly declaring support for President Tinubu, others dismissed it as fake news.

Verification

First, FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that the news bar in the video, which was published by AIT, a television station, showed that the video depicts Atiku’s son joining the APC, NOT the ADC presidential hopeful.

We watched and found that it was Abubakar Atiku Abubakar, son of the former Vice President who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC in January this year and declared support for Tinubu’s second-term bid.

This is an indicator that the X user deliberately made the claim to mislead the public.

Other credible news organisations in Nigeria published the story in January here and here.

Reacting, Atiku noted that the decision of his son, Abba Abubakar, to join the APC is “entirely personal.”

Checks on the official Facebook pages of Atiku showed there is no announcement of him declaring his support for Tinubu; rather, posts on the page showed his preparation for the 2027 election.

Verdict

The claim that Atiku has declared support for Tinubu is FALSE. The video posted by the X user shows Atiku’s son joining the APC.