Shortly after Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi vowed to challenge the outcome of the process in court.
Obi, who is the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, said he won the election and would prove it in court.
Reacting through Bayo Onanuga, the director of media and publicity of APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bola Tinubu, said he was prepared to meet the presidential candidate of the Obi in court.
The Labour Party claimed that INEC did not follow its own guidelines to transmit results electronically and in realtime.
However, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court Abuja on Friday, March 10, 2023, held that only INEC is empowered by law to determine the mode of collating and transmitting election results.
In a judgement, Justice Nwite stated that only INEC has the prerogative to direct how the Polling Unit Presiding Officer should transfer election results, including the total number of accredited persons and results of the ballot.
Justice Nwite further held that the collating and transferring of election results manually in the 2023 general elections cannot be said to be contrary to the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
In the judgement delivered on January 23, 2023, Justice Nwite held that the plaintiff (Labour Party) misconstrued the provisions of the law and proceeded to dismiss the suit.
However, after this court judgment was made, and Channels TV published the report on Twitter, a Twitter user posted under the comment section claiming that “that picture is Tinubu and the current chief judge of the federation. No wonder he said we should meet him in court” which is to imply that maybe the CJN is an ally of Tinubu thereby dismissed the suit against INEC.
Is the picture actually that of Tinubu and the current CJN of the federation? CDD Election War Room looked into it and here is what we found.
Verification
CDD Election War Room used TinEye to perform a reverse image search on the image, we discovered that “Mrfixnigeria”, a blog, had posted the image online as early as January 29, 2011.
The blog entry included a picture of Bola Tinubu and Dele Momodu during NADECO’s heyday as a throwback.
On January 28, 2021, Dele Momodu posted a full landscape view of the same picture with another picture below it on his Twitter page with the caption “Hottest throwbacks: Top, left to right, BOLA TINUBU, DELE MOMODU, MANI ONUMONU at Dele’s London home in 1996… Below, left to right: DELE MOMODU treating FEMI GBAJABIAMILA and KAYODE FAYEMI to sumptuous lunch at home in Accra, Ghana, over 15 years ago…”
Dele Momodu again posted the same picture on his Twitter page on April 3, 2021, explaining that the picture was taken at the naming ceremony of his second son Enitanyole Momodu in London, on July 14, 1996, when they were in exile.
Moments after the picture was going around claiming that that was Tinubu and CJN of Nigeria in one picture, Dele Momodu took to his Instagram page to debunk the claim.
He clarified that the photograph of him and Tinubu was taken in London in July 1996. However, he emphasised that he is a journalist, not a judge.
In addition, as stated on the website of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the current Chief Judge of the Federation is Hon. Mr Justice Olukayode Ariwoola GCON and not Dele Momodu a journalist and CEO of Ovation Media Group.
Verdict
CDD Election War Room ran a reverse image search on the picture and also confirmed from pre-2023 posts by Dele Momodu that the picture is that of Bola Tinubu and Dele Momodu — not the current Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Leave a Reply