Claim: A TikTok user stated that Bola Tinubu, in an APC meeting, told his supporters to snatch ballot boxes during elections, with an attached video.
Verdict: FALSE. The video has no mention of ballot boxes or election day. The poster seems to have applied a preconceived meaning to the words of the presidential candidate to mislead the public.
Full Text
Nigerians are a few weeks away from electing the country’s next president. Therefore, candidates’ supporters have taken the centre stage in campaigns both online and offline.
Intending to convince the general populace, supporters share information, gaffes, and activities on opposing candidates.
As a result, a TikTok user Mr_Noble Godson (@nobleboss8), shared a supposed leaked video of Tinubu encouraging his supporters to snatch ballot boxes at the elections.
The video was also found on Twitter posted by Honyfactory (@Honyfactory), who also tagged the video as a leaked one.
Reacting to the video, @cent3ric noted it is impossible to do that in the elections. “He can only do that in Lagos, not Nigeria, him never see craze 😂,” he commented.
Another Twitter user, O.G.B (@ogbonna_ugwuowo), credited the video as a reason the presidential candidate did not sign the peace accord. “Now you see why he refused to sign a peace accord,” he tweeted.
As of the reporting time, the video has attracted over 4,000 views, 300 retweets, 70 comments, and 200 likes on Twitter, while it has over 900 views on TikTok.
This video was also made to WhatsApp as users shared the screenshot on their WhatsApp status.
Due to its virality and potential to contribute or lead to electoral violence, DUBAWA chose to fact-check the assertion.
Verification
DUBAWA listened to the video and could not find the keywords “ballot box” in Tinubu’s speech. We also noticed that the video started halfway, meaning an extended version exists.
“Study the anthropology of it. Where are we? Political power is not going to be served in a restaurant. It is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing. It’s being determined to do it at all costs. Fight for it! Grab it! Snatch it and run with it!”
Those were the words of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate in the 48-second video.
We also found a report by the Gazette in December 2022, pointing at the same video and claiming to be about Tinubu’s ballot-snatching encouragement.
“Power must be grabbed, snatched at all cost: Tinubu,” the headline reads. According to the Gazette, Tinubu remained in the United Kingdom after attending a Chatham House engagement earlier that week.
The man at the end of the video was the one recording the video, and we found his name Mustapha Abdullahi, Deputy Chairman of the British APC, via a Google Reverse Image search.
In a report by NNN News Nigeria, he discussed Tinubu’s Chatham House.
A keyword search on YouTube led to different duration of the same video shared by different platforms a month ago, from OmoEluBlogTV to Prime Reporters News, to DIVINEVIBESTV, among many others.
We also found that the video was shared a week ago by NIGERIA POLITICS TCGM, noting that the Bishop of the Worldwide Anglican Church in Nigeria, Bishop Seun Adeoye, is calling on security agents to invite and interrogate the APC candidate over alleged comments.
These longer versions of the video show Mr Tinubu comparing the democracy and economy of Nigeria to that of India. He noted India has the largest democracy in the world and the richest middle class in the world.
“…they didn’t do it. We won’t attach everything to destiny; you grab it. We are struggling for it now. What? Power. Power, political, power, electricity. Electricity has been the most important discovery for humanity in the last 1000 years. Go and study anthropology.”
This was the earlier statement before the one captured in the TikTok video. This reveals his comments had nothing to do with ballot box snatching or election day.
Conclusion
Our findings show that the video conversations did not mention ballot boxes on election day. Although the presidential candidate encouraged his supporters to ‘snatch’ and ‘grab’ power at all costs, it does not imply that he directed them to snatch ballot boxes on the day of the election. Hence, this claim is false.
