Quadri Yahya
Claim
Social media users and Daily Trust newspaper shared a TikTok video during the ongoing gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections to tell a narrative that Kano residents are ‘protecting’ their votes by following INEC officials, with ballot boxes, to their offices.
Verdict
Misleading. Viral video unrelated to ongoing gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections. The video first appeared on the Tiktok account on Feb 24th, 2023.
Full Text
Social media users and Daily Trust newspaper shared a Tiktok video during the ongoing gubernatorial and House of Representatives elections to tell a narrative that Kano residents are ‘protecting’ their votes by following officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, taking ballot boxes, to their offices.
In the 34 seconds Tiktok video, a mammoth of people filled a night street.
A number of vehicles could also be seen in the background.
One version of the claim reads:
When it comes to politics my brother forget it, Northerners are naturally ahead…..these are APC and NNPP Supporters escorting their votes to INEC head office In Kano.
The post has garnered 424 retweets, 35 quote tweets and over 1k likes.
When it comes to politics my brother forget it, Northerners are naturally ahead…..these are APC and NNPP Supporters escorting their votes to INEC head office In Kano. pic.twitter.com/R6eGZSBq53
— 🦅 ℙ𝕤𝕥 𝕆𝕜𝕖𝕫𝕚𝕖 𝕁 𝔸𝕥𝕒ñ𝕚 🦅 (@StFreakingKezy) March 19, 2023
The Daily Trust newspaper also shared the video on March 19th, 2023, and captioned it thus; NNPP Supporters ‘Protecting’ Their Votes.
NNPP Supporters 'Protecting' Their Votes
Photo credit; @rabiu_s_amal on Tiktok pic.twitter.com/j14G9Y0R77
— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) March 19, 2023
The post has garnered over 500 engagement.
Verification
To verify the claim, FactCheckElections traced the name of the account on the video to TikTok.
There, we found out that the video was recently posted 18 hours ago (time check: 1:05 PM, Sunday, March 19th).
The inscription written in Hausa language can be loosely translated as: God bless those who follow their lot.
Further search through the account shows that the same video was posted on Feb. 24th.
Then, we recall that the TikTok video has been virally shared on Twitter and reading through the comment section (quote tweet), FactCheckElections got hint that the video was shot on the day the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in the Feb. 25th presidential election, Rabiu Kwankwaso returned to Kano State after a nationwide campaign.
FactCheck Elections further investigated the claim and found the video on Kwankwaso’s official Twitter handle — massive crowd had trooped out to receive the former Kano governor ahead of the February 25th presidential election.
We are currently making our way through Naibawa, Zaria Road.
The love here is absolutely unmatched! – RMK #RMK2023 pic.twitter.com/wX3c18y5P5
— Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (@KwankwasoRM) February 23, 2023
Conclusion
FactCheck Elections can confirm that the viral TikTok video claiming that Kano residents are ‘protecting their votes’ was not related to the gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections ongoing in the state.