By Pascal Ibe
Introduction
In recent days, the former Nigeria’s Vice President and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Atiku Abubakar, has been in the news over his promises as campaign for next year’s election is underway.
From promising to restore fuel subsidy, to opening a already opened borders, and then to writing off the debt of Nigerian students who is currently on the loan scheme offered by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration — Atiku plans to achieve these if elected president in 2027.
However, he has faced criticism from the presidency, which accused him of being desperate to become president.
Claim
A front page of a newspaper, known as Daily Tribune, was postred on the X platform, alongside the headline which read ” No Nigerian will pay house rent when I become president — Atiku”.
The newspaper front-page was posted (archived here) on 2 September on X by user, @HighChiefOkoro, has generated comments that suggested that many people believe that the presidential hopeful made the comment.
The X user posted the newspaper front-page and wrote, “BREAKING: Atiku Pledges 10-Year Jail Term for Landlords Who Collect Rent if Elected President”
Verification
First, FACTWATCH Nigeria conducted simple searches and found out that there is no newspaper in Nigeria known as “Daily Tribune ”. But rather Nigerian Tribune (tribuneoniline).
However, there is a newspaper named Daily Tribune in Philippines.
This primary evidence is an indicator that the comment attributed to Atiku is false because the newspaper is non-existent.
We reviewed recent videos and reports of Atiku and discovered that at no point did he make the comment.
Lastly,, FACTWATCH Nigeria subjected the front page of the newspaper to an AI detection tool, SightEngine, which confirmed that image is 99 per cent AI Generated.
Verdict
By using non existent newspaper, we found that the promise attributed to Nigeria’s former vice president is FALSE because it was AI Generated.
