On March 31, 2023, a post went viral on Twitter and Facebook claiming that the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected a $400 million bribe from the president-elect, Bola Tinubu.
The claim comes a few days after the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted permission to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to serve his petition challenging the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
Since the claim was shared on Twitter, it has since gained almost a million impressions.
Verification
In verifying the claim, CDD Election War Room traced the earliest version of the post, which was made by a Facebook page called “Anonymous”. The same post has since been shared across multiple Facebook groups, pages, and accounts.
Did claim originate from global hacktivist group?
The source Facebook page is a parody account pretending to be The Anonymous, a group of global hackers and activists who refer to themselves as “hacktivists.”
They claim to defend social issues and interests around the world by hacking government websites and accounts and sending anonymous messages.
The claim did not originate from the global hacktivist group.
Screenshot of the authentic Anonymous group official Facebook page
We checked the page transparency history of the parody “Ànonymous” account, and found that the page was created in 2022 with the name “Matchscore”.
It was later changed to “Match Corner,” before it was edited to become “Anonymous” in November 2022. The Facebook transparency information revealed that the page is being handled by six people in Nigeria.
The page had, in the past, claimed that Tinubu gave $200m to Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The handle also made a post on April 2, 2023, claiming that Bola Tinubu met with Judge Luz D. Carmen Ibáñez, and improved his proposal to $550 million, which was outrightly rejected.
Is there any case against Tinubu at the ICC?
The claim that Tinubu has bribed ICC presupposes that Tinubu is persuading the criminal court to rule in his favour. But CDD Election War Room found that Tinubu has no case before the ICC.
The ICC keeps a record of all active cases via a public portal. We checked the portal and found no case against Tinubu or any Nigerian politician.
ICC opened an investigation into War Crimes in Nigeria, and in 2020 released the report on its preliminary examination. The crimes being examined are by Boko Haram and the Nigerian military.
No election case before the ICC.
Did Tinubu bribe ICC judges?
The post claimed that Tinubu met the president of the court, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, and bribed her $550 million.
First, Carranza is not the president of the ICC, as the post claims. She is the first vice-president of the court, and is currently in charge of the Appeals chamber.
Secondly, Tinubu has no case before the ICC, hence, no basis for the alleged bribery.
Finally, CDD Election War Room reached out to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor, Public Affairs Unit, and Fadi El Abdallah, the spokesperson and head of the Public Affairs Unit at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and would update this report as soon as we have the court’s response. So far, there is no evidence to support the claim that Tinubu bribed the ICC.
Verdict:
CDD Election War Room found no evidence to support the claim that Tinubu bribed the ICC. We checked ICC case files and found that Tinubu has no case at all before the court. We also traced the source of the claim to a parody account on Facebook.