Monsuroh Abdulsemiu and Sultan Quadri

SUMMARY

A viral picture that has circulated on social media and blogs suggests that Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said that Nigeria discharged 25 people with Malaria and not Coronavirus and there is no Coronavirus in Nigeria. Another viral news story attributed to the former President states that Davido and his Wife, Chioma are part of a conspiracy to make the world believe that there is Coronavirus in Nigeria.

CONCLUSION

These claims are fake. President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi refuted these claims attributed to “Obasanjo” – a name he said is used by people to gain publicity. People’s Check dug into the website the news story was first published and found out that the body of the story is nowhere to found. It is only a headline that was found citing a clear case of clickbait.

FULL TEXT

There are a lot of fraudulent people that are taking advantage of the lack of trust Nigerians have in the government to publish fake stories that appeal to the people. President Obasanjo was quoted to have said there is no Coronavirus in Nigeria, a claim that has been debunked. A new set of fresh claims have been attributed to the former President once again.

There is a viral picture making rounds on social media and has further been recycled by different blogs. The viral picture has a picture of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the headline ” Nigeria discharged 25 people with malaria and not Coronavirus – Obasanjo”. We found out that this viral picture was originally gotten from a news story published here, and was recycled by another blog, here, now with an opinionated body.

Another news story was also published on the same website which carried the first claim. The second claim was also attributed to “Obasanjo”, with the picture of Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Its headline reads, ” Davido lied to Nigerians Chioma is in a private hotel she never had Coronavirus it was a planned game for the world to believe Nigeria had Coronavirus-Obasanjo” and it was published here.

VERIFICATION

When a statement attributed to President Olusegun Obasanjo which suggested that he said that there is no Coronavirus in Nigeria his Spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi debunked it and warned that any statement attributed to his principal without a mention of when and where he said it should be discarded.

Regardless, the People’s Check went ahead to put across a call to Mr. Kehinde Akinyemi to get undiluted information from him. He vehemently denied the claims and said it was the work of people who use the illustrious name “Obasanjo” for publicity.

When we search for where the post was first published, we found that the body of the story was nowhere to be found and only a headline and lots of adverts that were found on the page. The headline was a clickbait. The website is also a faceless one with no name of the authors of the stories published.

We also found out that there is no mention of this on major and credible news outlets.

Any story without the name of its author, not verified by credible news outlets, posted by a faceless blog and no mention of the specific event and date a statement was made should be discarded and not be circulated.