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Claim: An X user shared an image claiming that Peter Obi said not only Igbos are involved in the Lagos N2bn fake drinks burst.
Verdict: False. We found no evidence that Peter Obi made the statement, and the image used is AI-generated.
Full Text
On Oct. 13, 2026, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) uncovered more than 20 illegal stores producing and distributing counterfeit alcoholic beverages in Lagos.
During the operation, officials seized products valued at over 2 billion naira and arrested two suspects.
Subsequently, an X user @sistaliano shared a screenshot (archived here) purportedly showing a Punch newspaper article. The report headline reads, “Stop ethnic profiling. Not only Igbos involved in Lagos N2bn Fake Drinks Burst – Peter Obi.”
The screenshot, which contained a photograph of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, claims Obi warned against ethnic profiling following the raid on the suspected counterfeit drinks facility in Lagos.
The X user captioned the post, “Just look at this Oloribururku ffs. Why is this man like this? Jesus.”
As of Oct. 22, 2026, the post had generated 59,100 views, 1,100 likes, 352 comments, 393 reposts and 90 bookmarks.
Several users also reacted to the post in the comments. An X user, @patola58, commented, “So you are defending your people now for fake drinks and fake drugs. Nigerians hear you loud and clear.”
Another user, @SamuelImonide, wrote, “I think Obi is also into fake drug production; he should be investigated.
Similarly, @souladamstweets commented, “Fake products people will be the next bandits if Peter Obi becomes president.”
The claim was also shared on Facebook, as seen here.
DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim because the report could mislead the public and affect public perception of the candidate.
Verification
DUBAWA first conducted a keyword search using the exact headline on the purported newspaper article but found no report on Punch’s website or from any credible news outlet confirming that Peter Obi made the statement.
So DUBAWA used the search button on Punch newspaper’s website to check further but found nothing.
We found a June 2026 Punch report that Obi cautioned against the growing trend of linking criminal activities to ethnic groups in an X post. Obi described such narratives as divisive and harmful to national unity. This statement, however, differs from the claimant’s and is not linked to NAFDAC’s recent discovery.
We then reviewed Punch’s publication on Oct. 13, 2026, the same date as the claimant’s screenshot. We observed that Punch reported the NAFDAC incident in an article titled “VIDEO: NAFDAC uncovers fake drinks factory in Lagos, arrests two.”
We reviewed Obi’s official social media accounts, including his X and Instagram handles, to see whether he made the said statement but found nothing. However, on his X account, we found a tweet from June 2026 which Punch earlier reported. In the tweet, Obi spoke generally on ethnic framing. Since this was posted well before the NAFDAC incident, it is clearly unrelated.
So DUBAWA ran the claimant’s screenshot through AI image-detection tools to check whether the image was authentic. We first used TruthScan, and the results indicated a 99% likelihood that it was AI-generated.
The tool identified an OpenAI GPT-image-2 SynthID watermark as strong evidence that an AI image generation model generated or edited the image. It also highlighted other visual indicators, including overly perfect skin texture, potentially unnatural lighting and irregularities around the hairline.
DUBAWA also analysed the screenshot using Hive Moderation, which indicated a 99% likelihood that the image was AI-generated.
Conclusion
The claim that Peter Obi said not only Igbos are involved in the Lagos N2bn fake drinks burst is false. DUBAWA found no evidence that Obi made the statement, and we found the image to be AI-generated.