{"id":10005,"date":"2021-11-06T08:48:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T07:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=10005"},"modified":"2021-11-07T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T13:00:55","slug":"anambra-2021-governorship-election-fact-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/anambra-2021-governorship-election-fact-check\/","title":{"rendered":"Anambra 2021 Governorship Election Fact-Check"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: A post<\/a> on Nairaland claims a police DIG and AIG  assigned for the Anambra elections have both resigned from the assignment. The post details that: “A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Joseph Egbunike and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) deployed to Anambra State for Saturday\u2019s governorship election have resigned from the assignment.” <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: Phone calls placed to the police PRO, Frank Mba, were not responded to. However, according to latest reports from Vanguard<\/a> and independent<\/a> the police PRO has confirmed that there was no resignation, DIG Joseph Egbunike was only replaced with AIG Zaki Ahmed to lead the security for the Anambra gubernatorial elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A video shared<\/a> by a Twitter user, @Real_Amakalke, and many others depicts a rigging galore, allegedly  perpetrated by election officials in Anambra. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: Although the location of the footage could not be determined, analysis of the video on InVid video verifier showed it first appeared <\/a>an hour ago on this YouTube page, \u201cBiafraUplift\u201d and generally not too long ago online. The footage was neither doctored nor altered in any way. As such, the event in the video is recent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A Facebook page, Gtv-Freedom News Page, posted <\/a>two images at 10:45a.m., claiming that unknown gunmen are attacking and killing soldiers and police officers in Anambra. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification: <\/strong>While the first image is from a September 28th report<\/a> by BBC Igbo, the other image has been used several times in the past to accompany reports relating to hoodlums, unknown gunmen, Bandits e.t.c. No Premium Times\/PTCIJ observer or any credible media platform reported such a case. Also, the Anambra Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, dismissed the claim as fake news when contacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A user on Twitter, BiafraBreakingNews, claims <\/a>polling units in Onitsha remain empty with Zero voter turnout. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: Abdulazeez Abbas, a Premium times reporter in Onitsha clarifies that the low voter turnout is only at the newly established polling units in the area. He explains that the prevalent issue is the general malfunction with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVS) not the low voter turnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: Valentine Ozigbo, Anambra PDP gubernatorial candidate, said INEC is no longer using incident form. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: According to reports <\/a>by Premium times and Tribune, <\/a>INEC has abolished the use of incident forms since 2019. The incident form is a report to the elections board about any irregularity or unusual happening such as failure of  poll workers to appear on time, voter\u2019s name not on the roster, or general issues with election tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: Reports on ChampionsNews <\/a>and DailyPost<\/a> claim the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Chidozie Nwankwo  has stepped down for PDP\u2019s Valentine Ozigbo. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, the National Chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC) dispelled the claim. He described the news as \u201cfake\u201d and a means to demoralise the party\u2019s stands in the elections. The chairman said Mr. Chidozie is fully in the race and has not dropped for Valentine Ozigbo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A user on Twitter, @Afrimediaa, claims<\/a><\/strong> that \u2018unidentified armed men\u2019 have invaded   Aguata LGA, Immaculate Heart Ekwulobia; attacked party agents, electoral officers and made away with election materials and that voting has been cancelled.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>: An observer with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, Adesola Ikulaloju, who is currently at Aguata, confirmed that the news is not true. He added that voters are still on queue and voting is still ongoing with no threats at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A Twitter user @hardynwa<\/a> claims INEC has extended voting by an hour and that voting will continue on Sunday. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification: <\/strong>Anambra <\/strong>INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Nkwachukwu Orji, in a statement earlier<\/a> extended voting time to 4:00pm due to accreditation issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, a recent report\u00a0 by Premium Times<\/a> noted that the REC in a press briefing\u00a0 extended voting to Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A viral image claims<\/a> the APC chairman Anambra state, Chief Basil Ejidike, collapsed after losing his local government to PDP and APGA in ongoing gubernatorial elections in Anambra.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification: <\/strong>A Yandex reverse image search of the acclaimed picture of the fainted APC chairman, showed the image first appeared online in 2017 and since then, it has been satirised with diverse narratives attached to it and has appeared also on different platforms such as tori.ng <\/a>and wowplus.net<\/a> amongst many others since 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim: A user on Facebook, Ada Biafra shared <\/a>a statement titled \u201cUS Statement on the Upcoming Anambra Elections\u201d which detailed potential sanctions Nigeria would face if the Anambra Elections does not go well.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification: <\/strong>The “statement” did not appear or feature on any credible news sites. Also, the statement did not carry any signatory (like most statements do) or direct reference to it. In fact, the link <\/a>attached to it was that of a YouTube video broadcasting recent happenings in Anambra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Claim:\u00a0 A post by Anambra Breaking News NG on Facebook claims APC is heading to victory and leads in 7 local government areas in Anambra state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification:<\/strong> Latest reports <\/a>on election results by Premium times and ThisDay\u00a0 <\/a>shows it is APGA\u2019s Charles Soludu who is leading with 6 Local Government Areas so far and not APC\u2019s Andy Uba. No reports anywhere, aside from the claim in question, that suggest APC is leading in Anambra with 7 LGAs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A post on Nairaland claims a police DIG and AIG  assigned for the Anambra elections have both resigned from the assignment. The post details that: “A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Joseph Egbunike and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) deployed to Anambra State for Saturday\u2019s governorship election have resigned from the assignment.”  Verification: Phone calls placed to the police PRO, Frank Mba, were not responded to. However, according to latest reports from Vanguard and independent the police PRO has confirmed that there was no resignation, DIG Joseph Egbunike was only replaced with AIG Zaki Ahmed to lead the security for the Anambra gubernatorial elections.  Claim: A video shared by a Twitter user, @Real_Amakalke, and many others depicts a rigging galore, allegedly  perpetrated by election officials in Anambra.  Verification: Although the location of the footage could not be determined, analysis of the video on InVid video verifier showed it first appeared an hour ago on this YouTube page, \u201cBiafraUplift\u201d and generally not too long ago online. The footage was neither doctored nor altered in any way. As such, the event in the video is recent.  Claim: A Facebook page, Gtv-Freedom News Page, posted two images at 10:45a.m., claiming that unknown gunmen are attacking and killing soldiers and police officers in Anambra.  Verification: While the first image is from a September 28th report by BBC Igbo, the other image has been used several times in the past to accompany reports relating to hoodlums, unknown gunmen, Bandits e.t.c. No Premium Times\/PTCIJ observer or any credible media platform reported such a case. Also, the Anambra Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, dismissed the claim as fake news when contacted. Claim: A user on Twitter, BiafraBreakingNews, claims polling units in Onitsha remain empty with Zero voter turnout.  Verification: Abdulazeez Abbas, a Premium times reporter in Onitsha clarifies that the low voter turnout is only at the newly established polling units in the area. He explains that the prevalent issue is the general malfunction with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVS) not the low voter turnout.  Claim: Valentine Ozigbo, Anambra PDP gubernatorial candidate, said INEC is no longer using incident form.  Verification: According to reports by Premium times and Tribune, INEC has abolished the use of incident forms since 2019. The incident form is a report to the elections board about any irregularity or unusual happening such as failure of  poll workers to appear on time, voter\u2019s name not on the roster, or general issues with election tools. Claim: Reports on ChampionsNews and DailyPost claim the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Chidozie Nwankwo  has stepped down for PDP\u2019s Valentine Ozigbo.  Verification: Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, the National Chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC) dispelled the claim. He described the news as \u201cfake\u201d and a means to demoralise the party\u2019s stands in the elections. The chairman said Mr. Chidozie is fully in the race and has not dropped for Valentine Ozigbo. Claim: A user on Twitter, @Afrimediaa, claims that \u2018unidentified armed men\u2019 have invaded   Aguata LGA, Immaculate Heart Ekwulobia; attacked party agents, electoral officers and made away with election materials and that voting has been cancelled. Verification: An observer with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, Adesola Ikulaloju, who is currently at Aguata, confirmed that the news is not true. He added that voters are still on queue and voting is still ongoing with no threats at the moment. Claim: A Twitter user @hardynwa claims INEC has extended voting by an hour and that voting will continue on Sunday.  Verification: Anambra INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Nkwachukwu Orji, in a statement earlier extended voting time to 4:00pm due to accreditation issues. Also, a recent report\u00a0 by Premium Times noted that the REC in a press briefing\u00a0 extended voting to Sunday. Claim: A viral image claims the APC chairman Anambra state, Chief Basil Ejidike, collapsed after losing his local government to PDP and APGA in ongoing gubernatorial elections in Anambra.\u00a0 Verification: A Yandex reverse image search of the acclaimed picture of the fainted APC chairman, showed the image first appeared online in 2017 and since then, it has been satirised with diverse narratives attached to it and has appeared also on different platforms such as tori.ng and wowplus.net amongst many others since 2017.\u00a0 Claim: A user on Facebook, Ada Biafra shared a statement titled \u201cUS Statement on the Upcoming Anambra Elections\u201d which detailed potential sanctions Nigeria would face if the Anambra Elections does not go well.\u00a0 Verification: The “statement” did not appear or feature on any credible news sites. Also, the statement did not carry any signatory (like most statements do) or direct reference to it. In fact, the link attached to it was that of a YouTube video broadcasting recent happenings in Anambra. Claim:\u00a0 A post by Anambra Breaking News NG on Facebook claims APC is heading to victory and leads in 7 local government areas in Anambra state. Verification: Latest reports on election results by Premium times and ThisDay\u00a0 shows it is APGA\u2019s Charles Soludu who is leading with 6 Local Government Areas so far and not APC\u2019s Andy Uba. No reports anywhere, aside from the claim in question, that suggest APC is leading in Anambra with 7 LGAs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[5,1571,4,16,443],"tags":[2750,1370,2755,157,1336,2763,347,156,2754],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[873],"class_list":["post-10005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections","category-fact-check","category-featured","category-politics","category-quick-checks","tag-anambra-elections","tag-anambra-state","tag-andy-uba","tag-apc","tag-apga","tag-charles-soludo","tag-featured","tag-pdp","tag-valentine-ozigbo"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-2Bn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":873,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dubawa","display_name":"Dubawa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f70a877f6d81734de0ca299eabb33d20687f41f5a4cb83ae8d754fc9412ee293?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Strengthening Investigative Journalism for the fight against corruption in Nigeria."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Anambra-Election-2021-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C681&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10005"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=10005"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=10005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}