On November 20, 2023, a claim was attributed to Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The claim concerning the just-concluded gubernatorial election in Kogi state went viral on WhatsApp. Falana allegedly said Kogi Central Senatorial District is the election robbery center in the just-concluded governorship election.
Verification
The CDD War Room traced the origin of the claim to an online news platform, “The Observers.” We found that the platform published the story on November 20, 2023, and credited the claim to the interview granted by Falana on Channels Television.
We found the interview granted on Sunday Politics, a flagship programme of Channels Television, where the Senior Advocate spoke extensively on the just-concluded election across the three states, the judgements delivered by the Appeal Court over the week and other issues relating to the election and judiciary in Nigeria.
The CDD War Room found that in the 49:41 minutes-long interview, there was no place where Falana referred to Kogi Central as the election robbery centre. The only instance where he mentioned Kogi Central was when he said, “You saw what happened in Kogi, in Kogi Central, where results and ballot papers had been pre-thumb-printed, and when they were brought, the voters protested. Now, that has nothing to do with the Independent National Electoral Commission. This was just the act of politicians who have no respect for the democratic rights of the people. But again, the votes were counted. So what do you make of that?…… These are the problems we have to address.”
We found that the online news website where the claim originated from, quoted the part of the interview where Falana raised the electoral malpractice recorded in Kogi Central where ballot papers had been pre-thumb-printed before voting commenced. However, there was nowhere in the interview where the Senior Advocate made the claim of that the area is an election robbery centre.
Verdict: FALSE
The CDD War Room found that Femi Falana granted an interview on Channels Television where he berated the electoral malpractice recorded in Kogi Central. However, he didn’t refer to Kogi Central as the election robbery centre during the November 11 Governorship election.