Tweet falsely claims photo shows Lagos state deputy governor's son joining opposition rally

“Lagos state deputy governor first son joins obedient family (sic),” reads a tweet published on October 1, 2022.

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A screenshot of the false tweet, taken on October 2, 2022

A photo tweeted with the claim shows a man (circled in green) wearing a white T-shirt printed with pictures of Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed. He is also wearing a black baseball cap with the logo of Obi’s Labour Party.

The claim has more than 2,200 retweets and more than 9,900 likes.

Obi’s bid for the presidency is enjoying large support among young Nigerians, who see him as an alternative to Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and Atiku Abubakar, who was nominated by the leading opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Nigeria holds elections next year which will usher in a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a show of support for Obi earlier this month, thousands of people gathered on the streets of Lagos, where Tinubu was a state governor from 1999 to 2007. Every governor since has been a Tinubu loyalist, including the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, whose deputy is Hamzat.

Hamzat’s son attending a rally for Obi would therefore be seen as a switch of allegiance and a symbolic blow to the APC and Tinubu.

However, the claim is false.

‘Obi supporter’

Hours after the tweet went up on Twitter, Tunde Alao, a spokesperson for Hamzat, responded on the state’s Instagram account.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the gentleman in the displayed photograph is neither the Deputy Governor's son nor his relative,” Alao wrote, calling the post a “cheap tactic” by supporters of the Labour Party and insisting Hamzat was loyal to the APC.

Jubril Gawat, a senior special assistant on new media to the Lagos state governor, identified the man in the photo as Twitter user @Elkrosmediahub. By clicking on a link in his bio, AFP Fact Check found the person behind the account is Cross Benedict, the digital media director at a company called Elkros Media Hub and an avid Obi supporter.

Benedict tweeted a picture of himself and a fellow supporter getting ready for the rally. He is wearing the same cap and T-shirt.

He later posted four pictures from the event, among them the image used in the false claim.

The rest of his timeline from the day shows him laughing off the claims and blaming supporters of the APC for the “lies” on Facebook.