Juliet Buna
A recent image shared by Nigeria’s presidency official facebook page showed President Bola Tinubu at a Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting with the 36 state governors and had Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State in attendance.
The image which was shared on February 15, 2023 had the headline: “PRESIDENT TINUBU TO 36 STATE GOVERNORS: THERE MUST BE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR INCOMPETENCE; SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS TO BOOST FOOD PRODUCTION AND REMOVE RENT SEEKERS.”
It was widely shared on the Presidency’s social media handle on X and Facebook. However, the post on X has since been deleted following backlash from the users of the platform.
But, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga also took to his X handle using the same picture to publicise the press release statement of the meeting with the state governors.
Another medium, the Nigerian Democratic Report also used the same image to portray the president’s meeting with the governors.
VERIFICATION
A look through the images shared on the presidency’s social media platforms on X, Facebook and Instagram revealed discrepancies in the attires worn in the group images and the snapshots from the meeting with President Tinubu.
The president was dooning a deep blue long length kaftan in the other snapshots while in the group pictures, he was wearing a light blue agbada.
Also, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara state was wearing a long length brown kaftan in group pictures while the other snapshot showed him in a white agbada with blue embroidery.
Through a Google reverse image search, it was discovered that the group picture with the governors showing Yahaya Bello had been used by a news platform in October 2023 to report the news headline, “Otti, Obaseki, Sanwo-Olu, Zulum, Other Governors dragged to court over failure to account for subsidy palliative.”
A more thorough search showed that the image first appeared online eight months ago on President Tinubu’s official X handle, where it was captioned, “I had a meeting with the governors of the Nigerian Governors Forum led by the Chairman of the Governors Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.”
Upon further investigation, it became evident that the other snapshots from the meeting put out on the Presidency’s social media handles image just appeared online on February 15, 2024 while the one used as headline picture showing Yahaya Bello has been online since June 2023.
Additionally, records show that Yahaya Bello handed over his position as Governor of Kogi State to the incumbent Governor Usman Ododo on January 27, 2024. This occurred before the meeting between the president and the governors on February 15, 2024.
CONCLUSION
The image in question, which depicted Yahaya Bello’s attendance at the meeting is MISLEADING as verified images from the said meeting did not show him in attendance.
