By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

President Bola Tinubu began his re-election campaign for the 2027 presidential election in Kaduna State on Saturday, with a massive turnout by the supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

During the rally, Tinubu blamed the opposition, accusing them of creating the poverty that Nigerians are currently facing.

Claim

However, before the president’s visit, an image which claims to show security operatives guarding a campaign billboard Tinubu appeared on was posted on the X platform.

An X user, @Mallam_jabeer, who posted (archived here) the image on 23 October, wrote in part that “Tinubu is coming to Kaduna tomorrow( 24 October) and suddenly the security agencies have the capacity to flood the streets to protect his banners and pictures.”

Another user, @AndrewOkere also shared the image and made the same claim. 

“This is an insult to our gallant security operative.Why should they be guarding billboards instead of the lives and property of citizens????”

Comments on both posts showed that people believe that the image was real.

“First in Nigeria’s history, incumbent guarding billboard, incumbent denying opposition from placing their own billboard, why terrorists kill, maim, and sack thousands of Nigerians from their home. I don’t know who to pity; I pity myself, but I pity the foolish police men more,” an X user, Africa Arise, commented on the post.

Verification

First, the X users who shared the image, failed to disclose details about it. They did not state the exact location of where the president’s campaign billboard being guardian by security operatives, was.

To further make sure that the image was not real, FACTWATCH Nigeria ran a forensic analysis of the image by subjecting it to an AI image detection device.

The results from the forensic analysis showed the image was created using AI-generated tools.

We used some AI image detection tools like SightEngine, IsThisAI and others.

See the screenshot of the results of the analysis.

Verdict

Simple findings and forensic analysis showed the image was AI-generated and therefore it was not real.