Claim: An X user claims Peter Obi shared fake images of himself at the ECFR, which he did not attend.
Verdict: Misleading! Peter Obi attended the ECFR, but the images on his page were digitally altered.
Full Text
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is an international think tank that conducts cutting-edge, independent research on European foreign and security policy and provides a safe meeting space for decision-makers, activists, and influencers to share ideas.
On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, Peter Obi shared pictures and a write-up (archived here) about his participation in the ECFR roundtable discussion.
Reacting to this, an X user, Enitan Bello (@enitandev), claimed (archived link) that Peter Obi did not attend the ECFR but edited himself into the picture.
“It has gotten this bad that you are stealing other people’s pictures and editing them. The cleanest and most honest politician of all time is posting fake pictures of an event he didn’t attend,” Enitan wrote.
As of July 18, 2026, the post had garnered a total of 12,000 views, 5,500 reposts and 1000 comments.
Nirvana (@Nirvana1xy), disagreeing with the claimant, wrote, “So you guys believe a man who is known for saying ‘go and verify’ will post a fake AI-generated picture on his official page?”
Another user, Àṣàké Yẹ́wándé (@Olatoun _), questioning the authenticity of the claim, wrote, “Are you sure? I’ve been seeing it on several pages and felt people were politicking. Has he gone that low, knowing there’s an active opposition ready to unveil the truth?”
Lere Olayinka, the Special Assistant on Public Communication and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, also questioned Obi’s post. Lere wrote, “With forged pictures?”
We also found a post on Instagram with an image collage showing that the one Obi shared is fake.
The personalities involved, along with the post’s engagement and reactionary comments, prompted DUBAWA to verify the claim.
Verification
DUBAWA checked ECFR Africa’s handles and website to see whether they had posted images from the event and whether Obi was featured in any of them.
We found a post by @ECFRAfrica with the caption, “We welcomed Nigerian opposition leader and presidential candidate Peter Obi in our Berlin office today. With German policymakers, media and industry representatives, and experts, we discussed Nigeria’s policy priorities and its regional role.”
We noticed that the picture in this post, featuring Obi, was slightly different from the one he shared on his main page.
Comparing the two images, we observed that they show the same people in the same outfit, but the quality of the one Obi shared had been improved. Also, we observed that both pictures were taken from slightly different angles.
Having confirmed the picture is real and that Obi attended the event, we subjected the image Obi shared to some AI tools.
We used AI or Not, a tool for detecting AI-generated or altered images, text, videos, and deepfakes, and it indicated that the image is Likely AI with 72% accuracy.
Screenshot of AI or Not’s result. Picture source: AIorNot.com.
To double-check, we used Deep AI, another verification tool, which revealed that the image is 95% fake.
We also analysed the image using Fake Image Detector, a four-layer image forensic tool that uses AI detection, metadata analysis, error level analysis and watermark scanning to expose manipulated or AI-generated images.
The tool found no error level and reported “low local entropy,” suggesting AI smoothing, meaning the image was enhanced using AI.
We also reached out to Yunusa Tanko, the Interim National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, via WhatsApp and text messages to confirm whether the pictures were digitally altered or enhanced with AI, but as of press time, we had not received a response.
Conclusion
The claim that Peter Obi did not attend the ECFR roundtable and that fake images were shared is misleading. We found that Peter Obi attended the roundtable, and the images he shared were real but edited or enhanced using AI.