Local governorship election in Nigeria fuels misleading claims

Screenshot of the false post taken on September 24, 2024

Pictures included in the post show voting sheets and storage boxes littered on the ground.

One of the images also appeared in another post by the same X account. This time, the disruption was said to have happened in Edo north.

“BREAKING: They have written results in Edo North and the Edo North people rejected the election results,” reads the post shared more than 300 times.

Both posts were published by “Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization”, an X account that shares political content and has more than 450,000 followers.

The images, however, are old.

Recycled images

By conducting a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that all the images were taken during elections held in Nigeria in 2019 and 2023.

The first photo, showing two women standing amid scattered voting sheets and ballot boxes, was published by Nigerian Eye on its liveblog during the 2019 presidential election (archived here).

Nigerian Eye reported that the incident took place in Ogori-Magongo in Kogi state, where thugs destroyed ballot papers.

The BBC published the second photo as part of its reporting on the 2019 election saying it showed an incident that happened in Isolo, Lagos state (archived here).

The third photo, showing people on a street with ballot boxes and voting sheets scattered on the ground, was published on X by Sahara Reporters on February 25, 2023, during the presidential election (archived here).

AFP Fact Check debunked numerous claims during the 2023 Nigerian presidential election here.