Afeez Rabiu
Claim
A claim about former Vice President of Nigeria and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded February 25th elections, Atiku Abubakar’s congratulatory message to President-elect Bola Tinubu and the announcement of his retirement from politics has been circulating on social media since last weekend.
The news, which was published on the blog “Headline News” has since gone viral, and many Nigerians have been sharing it on various social media platforms.
Verdict
Based on the verification process, it is clear that the news claiming that Atiku Abubakar congratulated President-elect Tinubu and announced his retirement from politics is false. There is no credible source to back up the news, and Atiku Abubakar has not made any statement confirming it.
Verification
FactCheckElections conducted a thorough verification process to determine the credibility of the news and our finding reveals the facts behind the claim after our verification process was applied.
We traced the news back to the blog “Headline News” and analyzed the content on the blog. Upon analyzing the blog, we discovered that the blog is relatively unknown and lacks credibility.
The blog’s content is often sensational and lacks verifiable sources, which is a red flag.
We went further to check other conventional news sources and traditional media platforms. We searched for news about Atiku Abubakar congratulating President-elect Tinubu and announcing his retirement from politics on various credible news websites in Nigeria, such as Channels TV, Premium Times, Vanguard, and The Guardian. However, we did not find any news confirming the claim.
We also checked Atiku Abubakar’s social media accounts to see if he made any such statement. We analyzed his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, but we could not find any post confirming the news.
Also, we reached out to Atiku Abubakar’s media team to confirm the news. However, we did not receive any response from them.
Conclusion
In this case, we have debunked the claim that Atiku Abubakar congratulated President-elect Tinubu and announced his retirement from politics. The news originated from a relatively unknown blog with no credible sources to back up the story. We urge Nigerians to be cautious of what they share on social media and to always verify news from credible sources before sharing.