A story about the alleged arrest of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, was first posted by a Facebook page with the id, Kugjay Media
Further search reveals that the story has also been shared by another Facebook user “Machie Johnbosco” with a link to the content published on dailyexcessive.com, a website with 61,000 followers.
The post was published to mislead and drive traffic, as the story on the website was not attributed to any reporter nor was any credible source cited.
Furthermore, the story does not have time and date of the arrest.
It does not have any video or photo evidence.
The website publication claimed that Peter Obi was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS), However, a search through X (formerly Twitter) on Peter Obi’s personal handle ‘@PeterObi’ shows that he tweeted last at 1:11pm on May 8, 2024, that is Wednesday.
This indicates that he was at a meeting with UK MP and shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy at the time he was reported to have been arrested.
Extensive trend search on X did not indicate that Peter Obi was arrested as of the time of filing this report.
Earlier, a news blog Igbo Times Magazine also published the story on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, but a search through the blog (Igbo Times Magazine) shows that it publishes several contents aimed at attracting traffic, The blog is full of controversial stories some of which can be found here and here.
Further analysis of the story published by Daily excessive showed that the publisher did not attribute the story to any official or credible source.
Also, it did not state the crime Peter Obi committed to warrant his arrest or where exactly he was arrested.
The blog did not also mention the day Peter Obi was arrested.
These findings indicates that the blog published the story to draw traffic to it.
Our observation of the blog also shows that it is full of pop up adverts.
Good one. G15