A press release attributed to Nigeria’s electoral authority claims that the ruling party's presidential candidate Bola Tinubu is being investigated over a US drug case from 1993. The statement circulated in Facebook posts with pictures of court documents as alleged evidence. Some online users speculated Tinubu faced disqualification from the election as a result. But these claims are false: although the US court documents are genuine, the press release is fake and the country’s electoral commission has denied launching a probe. In any case, Nigerian law only bans contenders from running if they have been convicted of criminal offences in the decade preceding the election. A Nigerian TV station was fined and forced to apologise after it ran a news piece about the press release as being real.

“The Electoral Commission said it is currently discussing with the Northern Illinois District Court in the United States to get confirmation of the allegations against Tinubu before taking appropriate action,” reads a post written in Hausa and published on November 12, 2022.

The post refers to a “press release” purportedly issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on November 11, 2022, announcing it was looking into a 1993 old case involving Tinubu. According to the alleged statement, he forfeited a large sum to the US government in a drug case involving money laundering.

Other photos in the Facebook post – which has since been deleted – included pictures of Tinubu...

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