Claim: A viral video making the rounds on social media, mainly on WhatsApp, depicts Dino Melaye expressing his support for Peter Obi, the Labour presidential candidate, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The viral video making the rounds on social media, mainly on WhatsApp, depicting Dino Melaye expressing support for Peter Obi, the Labour presidential candidate, ahead of the 2023 general elections is false. The video is taken out of context from an original version that was shared by Dino Melaye.
Full Text
It’s a few months away from the general elections in Nigeria. As expected, social media is already agog with the narratives and discourses of politics. Consequent to this reality, a viral video making the rounds on social media, particularly on WhatsApp, featured politician and former senator Dino Melaye eulogising and expressing his support for the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi.
Mr Melaye, a former senator with a history of controversy, said in the acclaimed video that Mr Obi is the best candidate to unify Nigeria. He added that the movement should continue and everyone should be part of it.
“I wanna say, it is time for us to think. I encourage the crusade. The movement started by Peter Obi to continue, move from campus to campus, move from community to community, move from one progressive group and organisation in this country to another to campaign for the new Nigeria that is to come and be part of the movement,” Mr Dino was posed to have said in the 38 seconds video.
The video was traced back to a Tick-Tok account, @lolabearose, with the tag:
“Thank you, Mr Dino, for always saying the truth.”
The claim has already garnered a significant amount of interactions, over 600 views, 300 likes and 80 comments. One user, @tapcurrent, apparently in consensus with the post, commented that PDP might merge with Mr Obi’s Labour party.
“Hahahahaha, they have started to revise the truth. Don’t be surprised that PDP will merge with LP.”
Another user, @user kingh, hinted that Mr Malaye might switch from PDP to LP hopefully. “Mr Dino is coming into the Labour party this week by God grace and u are going to handle that aspect of the campaign,” the user stated.
There is some doubt as to the credibility of the video; just two days ago, Mr Malaye reinstated his support for PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar. This twist now casts a reservation on the heralding claim.
Verification
DUBAWA first analysed the acclaimed video on Deepware, a tool used to determine whether a video is a deep fake. Results from the analysis verified that the video is not a deep fake but an actual one.
Further to that finding, DUBAWA also subjected the clip for analysis on InVid video verifier. Results from the video fragmentation revealed the acclaimed video was taken out of context from an original and more extended version.
On 1st July 2022, Mr Melaye shared a 6:35 minute video of himself with the caption:
“Obi is a fantastic and a good man, but he lacks the capacity to unify Nigerians.”
In the video, Mr Malaye pledged his support for PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and downplayed Mr Obi’s candidacy ahead of the 2023 general election.
Mr Malaye further stated that Mr Atiku is a unifier and outlined some qualities which he believes make Atiku the best candidate to be president.
“So we need one Nigerian. Who is going to be trusted by every part of this country, who the north will believe in, who the south will believe in and that person without blinking eyes is Atiku Abubakar,” he asserted in the video.
Mr Malaye did say the exact words in the acclaimed video. However, the context was attributed to Mr Obi’s role as Atiku’s Vice President when the duo unsuccessfully ran for the presidential elections in 2019. The acclaimed 38 seconds clip was taken from the original video that is six minutes and twenty-five seconds long (6:25). Excised exactly at 4:30 – 4:58 timing of the original version to paint a somewhat different narrative.
In fact, Mr Melaye had further shared the same YouTube video on his Twitter account with the caption:
“WATCH……SDM. Peter Obi is Fantastic and a good man, but he lacks capacity to unify Nigerians. Unity is more important than cutting cost of governance.”
Conclusion
The viral video making rounds on social media, depicting Dino Melaye expressing his support for Peter Obi, the Labour presidential candidate, ahead of the 2023 general elections is false. The video was taken from a more extended version that has little to do with the acclaimed narrative.
