False: Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo stormed an election collation center in Abuja.

By: Sam Doak
February 28 2023

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Context

The Nigerian general elections were held on February 25. Since then, a significant number of false narratives have circulated concerning both the collection and counting of votes. One particularly dramatic claim tells of former president Olusegun Obasanjo storming a site being administered by the Independent National Electoral Election Commission (INEC) to prevent the election from being stolen through the publication of false results. 

This claim appears to have been spread primarily through WhatsApp and Facebook. A post published on the Facebook page Igbo Times summarises the claim, stating, "Breaking News: Obasanjo storms INEC collection center in Abuja with the real results of all the 36 state and FTC. [...] The original result that Obasanjo had with him, shows Obi coming first with a 10M votes margin and Atiku coming second with 4 million votes ahead of Tinubu, who couldn't get 25% in each state that is required."

In Fact

Despite what has been claimed, Logically was unable to find a single credible source that corroborates the events described in this post. Given Obasanjo’s high profile in Nigeria and the newsworthiness of the events described, it is highly unlikely that this event would go unreported in mainstream outlets if true. 

To further examine the veracity of this claim, Logically used reverse image searches to find the origin of the four photographs attached to the Igbo Times Facebook post. While a viewer would likely assume that these images show the scenes being described, each of them predates the Nigerian general elections by a significant time period. 

It should be noted that the Facebook page Igbo Times has repeatedly shared misinformation concerning the Nigerian general elections in recent months. Late last week, AFP noted that it had debunked narratives spread on the page five times in the lead-up to the general elections. 

The Verdict 

There is no evidence that Olusegun Obasanjo stormed INEC's collation center in Abuja. This narrative has not been reported by any reliable source, and the images that have accompanied posts concerning it relate to entirely unrelated events. This claim has therefore been marked as false.