On Friday, August 23, 2024, a post claiming that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, admitted that Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) won the 2023 presidential election emerged on social media.
The post was shared on X by a user named Christian with the handle @Christi38913511.
The post, which was captioned; “Abeg who else has seen this one? Wike admits that Obi is the winner of the presidential election and that the law will take its course…”, was accompanied by a video of Wike addressing a group of people.
Screenshot of the post
We decided to fact-check this claim, to arrest misinformation before it spreads.
We began our check with a careful assessment of the video that accompanied the post.
We took our time to watch the 43 seconds video from beginning to the end.
Wike’s exact words were: “The hero of this election is Obi, I’m not saying it to make you happy, I am saying the truth and nothing but the truth.
“He may not have been pronounced as the winner, no problem, the law will take its course.”
Wike did not say that Obi won the election, rather he said he was the hero of that election.
We decided to dig deeper, and we found some facts that might interest you.
We found that the video attached to the post by @Christi38913511 was first shared on X (formerly Twitter) by @ifeanyiakorjuru on May 16, 2023.
However, contrary to Wike’s statement, @ifeanyiakorjuru also reported that Wike said Obi won the 2023 election.
The post read: “BREAKING: Peter Obi won 2023 Presidential Election — Wike
“He (Obi) may not have been pronounced as winner — no problem. The law will take its course.”
This post had garnered 7.7K views, 433 likes, and 301 reposts.
Screenshot of the post
The post came with a link which we clicked, but it led to a dead end.
We decided to dig a little more.
We found that the caption – “BREAKING: Peter Obi won 2023 Presidential Election — Wike. “He (Obi) may not have been pronounced as winner — no problem. The law will take its course”, – was copied from a post by NN News Media @NNNewsMedia on X.
NN News shared the post on May 16, 2023.
The time difference in the two posts shows that it was first published by NN News Media.
Screenshot of the post
However, NN News Media did not attach any video to its post, just a picture of Wike.
@ifeanyiakorjuru only added the video which was cut, to suit the narrative.
Many misinformation comes in short videos, hence, it will do our fact check so much good if we can find the original video.
That way, we will be sure if Wike actually said that Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election.
To get to this, we used video sharing platform YouTube, for this verification.
We combined the keyword; Wike Obi Presidential Election, for our YouTube search.
Lo and behold, we found the complete video.
The video was shared by several well-known media outlets.
Channels TV posted the video on March 11, 2023, with the caption; Wike Declares Obi Hero Of 2023 Presidential Election.
The 32 minutes, 25 seconds video captures Wike addressing traders in Port Harcourt.
Screenshot from YouTube
Also, TVC posted on March 11, 2023, with the caption; Gov Wike Says Obi Frustrated PDP’s Chances At 2023 Presidential Poll.
Screenshot from YouTube post by TVC
Conclusion
From available evidence we can conclude that the video of Wike is an old one.
The claim that Wike said that Obi won the 2023 presidential election is misleading.
It is clear that this post was shared to spark controversy and gain traffic.
