A Facebook collaged photo showing venues and attendance of presidential campaign rallies of the APC Presidential Candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, in Adamawa State and his PDP counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, in Katsina State is misleading and mislabelled.
The Facebook post originally published by a Facebook user, Chidi Cali, at 7:55 pm on February 7, 2019, was also shared by a Facebook page Hope For Nigeria at 7:58 pm of the same day.
The photo was captioned with the following texts: “Home And Away Match. Atiku Takes Over Katsina While Buhari is Struggling In Adamawa. This is whole stadium picture NOT one corner make-up. – Chidi Cali.”
The post on Chidi Cali’s Facebook wall has been shared 606 times and garnered 44 comments with 97 reactions as of 11:00 am February 9, 2019.
Also, the post on Hope For Nigeria page has been shared 266 times and garnered 69 comments with 235 reactions as of 11:00 am February 9, 2019.
While the Hope For Nigeria page has 682,925 followers, Chidi Cali’s wall is being followed by 25,078 people.
CrossCheck Nigeria confirms that the photo is misleading and mislabelled for the following reasons:
- The venue of Buhari’s presidential rally in Adamawa state is not a stadium as shown in the photo collage. APC presidential rally took place at the Mahmud Ribadu Square in Yola, Adamawa. The Ribadu Square, as seen in a photo published here on Saturday, 29 October 2016, does not have track field and goal posts as shown in the collage. Also, the floor of Ribadu Square is covered with gravel sand and looks blackish in colour while that of the photo collage looks greenish.
The Ribadu Square in Adamawa has a sitting capacity for 10,000 persons as reported by TVC News. But the photo mixed in the collage revealed that the ‘stadium’ purportedly shown as that of Buhari’s campaign venue will most definitely sit higher capacity of audience. It is worthy to note that Atiku’s campaign venue has a sitting capacity for 35,000 persons as verified by a hotel tourism website.
Had it been Buhari’s campaign ground (Ribadu Square) in Adamawa state is truly a stadium as depicted in the photo collage, satellite images on Google Maps would have easily indicated it as shown in that of Karkanda Stadium, Katsina where Atiku held his campaign.
Though the photo of Atiku’s presidential rally in Katsina as shown in the collage is original, it only revealed the crowded sections of the Karkanda Stadium, Katsina and neglected the scanty sections during the rally. A video of the campaign venue as shown in a Channels TV news clip (From 3:00 – 3:45mins) shows that several seats were empty during the rally. Another video clip from Leverage TV’s YouTube Channel shows the “360 Degrees View of Atiku Campaign in Katsina,” thus corroborating it.
