Atiku says statement claiming he is planning a huge street protest was made up by ‘mischief makers’

We’ve archived some of the posts, which have together been shared more than 3,000 times, here, here and here. They quote Atiku as saying: “My Server Results Are Authentic and If judges frustrate the Justice we will take over the street. I will lead all Nigerians in a massive protest that mankind have (sic) never witness(sic) before”.

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A screenshot taken on June 19, 2019, showing a post which claims Atiku said he's planning a massive protest

The posts do not state when or where Atiku is supposed to have made such a warning.

“Such a statement did not emanate from me or my privies,” Atiku said in a June 16 statement on his official Facebook page.

He said the invented quotes were the work of “mischief makers” who wanted to tarnish his “spotless pro-democratic record”.

Final results from the February 23 presidential election showed Atiku losing to President Muhammadu Buhari by nearly four million votes.

But Atiku, who ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed that results from the computer server of the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) show that he won, and that the figures announced to the public were not authentic.

He has since challenged the outcome of the election at the election tribunal, which is expected to deliver its verdict within six months of the election. While the tribunal has not concluded the process of hearing the election suit, INEC has said that Atiku’s claims are not valid.

Posts that falsely attribute comments to individuals, often to add support to one political argument or another, are common in Nigeria.

In another example, posts circulating in April quoted former NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan as claiming that crude oil could never be found in northern Nigeria. Sullivan told AFP this was not her subject area and she would never have made such comments.