A POST with several claims about 2023 presidency and the internal leadership tussle in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party went viral on WhatsApp last week.
The post first surfaced on the 17th July.
The post was also shared on Facebook and blogs.
One of the claims in the post is that the Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, was in Abuja for three days and was not able to see Governor Mai Mala Buni, who is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Caretaker Committee.
Gboyega is also a member of the APC.
THE CLAIM
Part of the WhatsApp post reads – (SIC) “You can confirm from the Governor of Osun State, Mr Oyetola, he was in Abuja for three days and couldn’t see Governor Mai Mala Buni because both Mai Mala Buni and Akeredolu group didn’t want to allow him and other pro Asiwaju Bola Tinubu group in the Committee to discuss the MODE OF PRIMARY FOR ONDO STATE APC GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION”
The claim: Oyetola spent three days in Abuja without seeing Buni
THE FINDINGS
On the 17 of July at 9:35pm, Governor Oyetola spokesman, Ismaila Omipidan shared photos of Oyetola and Buni on Facebook.
Omipidan captioned it “Pictures don’t lie”.
He went further to write that the pictures were taken before the commencement of the caretakers committee meeting at the party Secretariat.
The ICIR also reached out to Omipidan and he restated that Oyetola met with Buni.
He said: “There is nothing true about the post (WhatsApp post). It is nothing but false. Those two leaders were together and meeting all through our stay in Abuja”.
The ICIR also contacted Mamman Muhammad, the spokesperson of Governor Buni, he confirmed that the parities in question met.
Muhammad said: “The last time they were here at the secretariat of the party, I saw the man (Oyetola) myself with my principal many times together. What kind of cheap blackmail is that!”
Referring to the the claim, he said “nothing like that happened, the information is false”.
THE VERDICT:
From the information presented above, the claim that Oyetola spent three days in Abuja without seeing Buni is therefore, FALSE
Samad Uthman is a multimedia journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He tweets @sarmerdk2 and can be shot through suthman@icirnigeria.org