Doctored photo used to make false claim about Nigerian politician Peter Obi's UK 'detention'

“Here is how the government of APC helped to recover Peter Obi from his detention cell in the UK over allegations of traveling to the UK with fake documents,” reads a tweet published on April 13, 2023, which has been shared more than 3,400 times.

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A screenshot of the false tweets taken on April 15, 2023

The post includes a photo showing Nigerian opposition leader Peter Obi and the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, sitting before a supposed UK immigration official.

Adamu Garba, a high-profile member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), shared the tweet to his more than 126,000 followers.

He published the same content on his Facebook page. The politician has been the subject of AFP debunks in the past (here and here).

Obi was one of the three leading presidential candidates in the February 2023 election but lost to the APC’s Bola Tinubu. However, Obi and Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have petitioned the election results in court, each claiming that they won.

On April 12, the Labour Party said in a now-deleted statement that Obi was detained and “questioned” by UK immigration officials at London's Heathrow airport on April 7 for a “duplication offense” (archived here). The party alleged that someone had been impersonating Obi in London.

In a later statement, it referred to the incident simply as a "routine immigration engagement" (archived here).

However, the claim that Dabiri-Erewa secured Obi’s release from detention in the UK is false.

Altered image

Using reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that the image was digitally altered and is made from three separate photos taken at different locations and times.

The part of the image showing Dabiri-Erewa was taken from a photo she posted on Twitter on March 31, 2023 (archived here).

Dabiri-Erewa said the original photo showed her on a “courtesy visit” to Nigeria’s naval chief, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo.

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A comparison of images showing the altered photo, above, and the original version showing Dabiri-Erewa

The Nigerian Navy published the same photo on Twitter on March 30, 2023 (archived here).

As for the image of Obi, it was taken from a photo he had shared on Twitter back in September 2022 (archived here). The original photo showed him with former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.

“I deeply appreciate the opportunity to hold extensive discussions with President Olusegun Obasanjo earlier today on arising national interest matters,” Obi wrote in the tweet.

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A comparison of images showing the altered photo, above, and the original version showing Peter Obi

The image of the supposed UK Immigration official is taken from a screenshot of a scene in Season 3, Episode 9 of the Amazon Prime docuseries “Customs: Fighting Crime at the Border”. The docuseries, which follows UK custom officials, aired in 2010.

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A screenshot of the Amazon Prime series, taken on April 14, 2023

Moreover, Abdu-Rahman Balogun, a spokesperson for NiDCOM, said Dabiri-Erewa was not in London when Obi was detained and “not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation.”