As the presidential race in Nigeria heats up, candidates are in the crossfire of disinformation. A video viewed tens of thousands of times allegedly shows the ruling party's candidate, Bola Tinubu, describing his rival Atiku Abubakar as the former governor of southeastern Anambra State – instead of another key opponent, Peter Obi. On the campaign trail, Tinubu has come under scrutiny for making verbal gaffes. But in this case, the claim is false. AFP Fact Check found that the clip appears to have an audio glitch which alters its original meaning. Other footage and transcripts of the speech show Tinubu was referring to Obi, who served as Anambra governor several times, including most recently from June 2007 to March 2014.

“When Atiku was the governor of Anambra State? Tinubu is finished”, reads a tweet published on January 25, 2023.

A screenshot of the false post, taken on January 30, 2023

The video, which has been viewed more than 157,000 times, shows Tinubu speaking at a rally in southwestern Ondo State.

After mentioning Abubakar, Tinubu appears to say: “Instead, he [Abubakar] would rather sell your birthright to the highest bidder and his cronies and run off with the proceeds... has [had] the chance to show how progressive he could be when he was governor of Anambra State.”

A static sound is heard right before Tinubu seems to refer to Abubakar as Anambra’s former head.

Tinubu is the candidate for Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and has emerged as one of...

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