Abidemi Kajogbola
On Saturday, March 18, 2023, a twitter post show a video of a man sharing money to women.
The video is purported to have shown the Bauchi state Commissioner for Youth and sport, Alhaji Adamu Manu Soro, sharing money to women.
An instagram post by Chief Dele Momodu (@delemomoduovation) also shared the same post , while an Instagram post with the caption “it does not matter when, where and which political party is involved, this is no democracy, also reposted the video.” The instagram post has generated over 56,000 views, 211 comments and 799 likes as of the time of filing this report.
VERIFICATION
To verify the authenticity of the video clip, it was analysed using Deepware. Findings from the AI software revealed that the video is clean and has not been doctored or tampered with.
Also, the researcher compared the image of the man sharing money in the video to that of Alhaji Soro, findings revealed that they do not look alike.
A further look revealed that police officers in the video are fully dressed in combat uniform and are carrying guns, however security personnel are not allowed to carry firearms at polling centres during the elections in Nigeria. This is a directive by successive Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Nigeria to de-criminalise elections.
The IGP also restricted security aides and escorts from accompanying their principals and politicians to polling booths and collation centres during the elections.
Meanwhile, Soro has denied being the one in the viral video clip. The state commissioner disclaimed the video in an interview with journalist in Bauchi. He declared that he was not the one in the video clip and threatened legal action against imposters.
CONCLUSION
The video circulating with the claim that Bauchi commissioner was caught on camera buying votes on election day is FALSE.
Kajogbola is a volunteer on the N-VA Facts Inclusive Project, funded by the ICFJ.
