How local political parties-aligned supporters spread misinformation on Twitter during Nigeria’s 2023 general election
Caption: Collage of fake tweets posted during the 2023 General Election.
By Shehu Olayinka
Several social media accounts used for sharing misinformation and disinformation during Nigeria’s 2023 General Election have been traced to supporters of top political candidates who contested different positions under their various political parties in the just concluded elections.
From June 2022, when the top four political parties ended their party primaries for the Presidency, National Assembly, Governorship, and State House of Assembly election, these supporters spread exaggerated and false content with the aim of misleading voters on the internet. This they did by using hashtags, influencers, manipulating trends, sockpuppets’ fake accounts, altered audio clips and bots to increase the spread of their social media posts online. Unfortunately, some of this misinformation and disinformation narratives found their way into daily interpersonal communication offline.
In Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential election, four candidates were classified as major contenders out of the eighteen political parties which fielded presidential candidates. They are; Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who was later declared winner of the election, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) — and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP).
Apart from amplifying their candidates’ status, the account staged online suppressive campaigns to delegitimise their candidate’s opponents and call to question the credibility of the nation’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Those accounts were observed to have used unconnected trending topics to promote the aspirations of their preferred political party and candidate. This action of jumping on trends to get visibility and enhance reach will allow many more people to see the message while increasing the general virality of such conversations online.
Caption: A screenshot of accounts using trendsjacking.
A comprehensive review of some tweets made between Jan. 1, 2023 and April 31, 2023 by these X accounts, formerly known as Twitter accounts about the election revealed the presence of devoted trolls and supportive networks who benefited from the comments’ ability to spread like wildfire to widen the reach of their tweets.
The accounts disseminated fake quotes, misleading pictures, exaggerated claims, and fake election results. Through retweets and quote tweets, these X accounts constantly communicated with one another and promoted each other’s posts.
They coordinated their activity using hashtags, including #NigeriaDecides2023 and #NigerianElections2022. This set of accounts also deployed Trendjacking.
Some monitored X accounts’ timelines were observed to have shared the same election-related content loosely and coordinatedly. A vivid observation of some accounts showed similarities in their activities; although the supporting content had minor variations, the core message remained constant. They were posting ranging from a couple of minutes to several hours.
Considering the scale and persistence of various claims posted on social media prior to and during the election, such campaigns are targeted to benefit the candidates and their political parties. Although no direct evidence links the four major candidates and their political parties to these accounts, the shared contents are strongly biased and partisan.
An earlier report by this reporter, which examined activities of some social media accounts before the general election, indicated that supporters of political parties, especially their presidential candidates, were found to have engaged in spreading misinformation.
A senior cabinet member under the immediate-past Buhari administration, Festus Keyamo; a Prominent Musician, Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy; a former Senator and member of the PDP, Dino Melaye; a Chieftain of the APC, Adamu Garba, amongst others, were found to have on various occasions, engaged in spreading misinformation.
Claims found to have been coordinated include:
- Peter Obi got over 1 million votes each in Anambra, Plateau
- Obasanjo stormed INEC office
- Bode George said INEC chairman flew to Lagos to visit Tinubu in Ikoyi etc.
Out of all the accounts observed during and after the election, five X accounts were marked for close monitoring, while others were minimally observed. This was due to their online activities during the election and post-electioneering period. The accounts are: @drpenking, @redcap_blondie, @firstladyship, @omoelerinjare and @VictorIsrael_.
Examples of similar content shared by three of the five accounts being monitored.
The five accounts were found to have been involved in two campaigns aimed at misleading Nigerians and electoral observers. One of the five accounts, @redcap_blondie, was found to have been involved in two other coordinated campaigns, with one publicised by popular musician Charly Boy.
Examples of similar content shared by two of the five accounts being monitored.
Some social media influencers with sizable followings actively participated in the campaign. These accounts’ tweets show that some openly support the Labour Party candidate.
How claim that Peter Obi got over One Million votes in Plateau State went viral
Two days after the Feb. 25, 2023, presidential elections, several X accounts, in a well-coordinated manner, emphasised that the Labour Party’s presidential candidate received more than one million votes in Plateau State.
Using X search, we discovered the accounts shared similar posts coordinatedly and were shared within minutes to hours after one of the first posts on the claim was posted online.
Collage of Network accounts that claimed Peter Obi had over million votes in Plateau State. Date: Feb. 27, 2023.
The five monitored network accounts were among the accounts that shared the claim. Some of the high-follower X accounts that shared the claim were observed to have been supported by accounts with low followership counts.
One of the X accounts, @omoelerinjare, shared the same claim at 11:49 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2023. The account alleged that the result archived here was declared by the “state INEC.”
His post generated over one million views, 5,467 retweets with quoted tweets and 22.1K likes.
Another X account, @VictorIsrael_, on February 27, 2023, at exactly 11:55 a.m., announced to his 223,642 followers on X that the Labour Party polled over one million votes in Plateau State. The post reads, “The total collated results in Plateau State for Presidential as we speak: APC — 150,134, PDP — 450,329, LP — 1,125,400.
This post garnered more than 700k views, 5,604 retweets, 214 quotes tweets, and 18.7K likes.
Contrary to the viral tweeted results, official figures released by the INEC showed that Peter Obi won in the state with a total votes of 466,272, followed by the candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, his closest rival in the state, who got a total of 307,196 votes.
Also, the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, polled 243,808 votes, while the NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, polled 8,869 votes in the state.
The results tweeted by these misinformation purveyor were announced before the electoral umpire’s official declaration.
Also, an analysis of the official result published by civic tech organisation Civic Hive revealed that Peter Obi did not get more than One million votes in Plateau State, as claimed by the X users.
Additionally, it was exceedingly doubtful that any candidates could have received more than a million votes in Plateau State based on the number of accredited voters and valid votes that INEC disclosed for the state.
According to INEC figures, Plateau State had 2,789,528 registered voters and 1,139,393 accredited voters, while the number of votes cast was 1,111,164.
The total valid votes were 1,088,170, and rejected votes were 22,994.
2. How X users spread claim that Peter Obi won with over one million votes in Anambra State.
The same strategy deployed by the network of X accounts in trending the claim that Peter Obi got over one million votes in Plateau was also used in spreading the claim that the LP Presidential candidate got over one million votes in Anambra State.
Around 7:00 p.m. on February 27, 2023, several X accounts began tweeting that the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, got over one million votes in Anambra State.
This was eight hours after the Plateau campaign began appearing online.
Some of the accounts who shared the claim were found to be involved in the earlier claim and shared on the same day.
The five high-following accounts being closely monitored also shared the claim.
Similar tweets were shared coordinatedly, stating that the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate got over one million votes in Anambra State.
Collage of Network accounts that claimed Peter Obi had over million votes in Anambra State. Date: February 27, 2023
It was found that X accounts with fewer followers supported several of the high-follower accounts that posted the claim.
One of the X accounts being closely monitored, @redcap_blondie, claimed in a Tweet archived here that Peter Obi polled 1,102,300 in Anambra state.
The post read, “Anambra state delivered 1m votes‼️ APC- 908, LP-1,102,300, NNPP- 324, PDP- 6,549. This is how some other states should have been, but the results were manipulated.” sic
Also, @omoelerinjare, one of the X accounts, shared the post at 8:09 p.m. on February 27, 2023, to his 23,769 followers.
His post, archived here, has garnered more than 373k views, 2,388 retweets,130 quotes tweets, and 7,306 likes.
Another x user, @VictorIsrael_, tweeted the same result archived here at 8:48 p.m. alongside other x accounts with a large following.
When we asked @redcap_blondie where the account got the results it posted, the x account said the results were sent to the user by polling agents.
“Most information I posted was gotten directly from the state and polling agents sending them on my dm. I got a lot of them who did the calculations but INEC called another and a lot were defranchised. As you know the results are manipulated. If not, we will not be in court.” sic
The results were shared online before the electoral umpire’s official declaration.
But the result eventually announced by INEC on February 28 differed from what went viral online.
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the LP, won the election in Anambra state after polling 584,621 votes against the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who polled 9,036 votes. While the APC presidential candidate polled 5,111 votes and NNPP got 1967 votes in the state.
The results were announced by the Returning officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Prof Nnenna Oti, at the INEC collation centre in Awka.
In addition, Civic Hive’s analysis of the official results showed that Peter Obi received fewer votes in Anambra State than several x users had posted.
Furthermore, based on the number of accredited voters that INEC reported, it was incredibly unlikely that any contender could have gotten more than a million votes in Anambra State.
According to INEC figures, Anambra State had 2,656,437 registered voters and 628,590 accredited voters, while the number of votes cast was 624,612.
The total valid votes were 613,861 and rejected votes were 10,751.
3. How claim that Bode George said INEC chairman visits Ikoyi on Election Day became viral.
Another claim observed to have been shared in a coordinated manner was that Ex-Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Olabode George, said INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu visited Ikoyi in Lagos State on February 25, 2023.
The claim was shared by famous musician Charles Oputa, known as Charly Boy, archived here, on February 26, 2023, at precisely 4:59 p.m.
The claim had read, “INEC chairman should tell Nigerians what he came to Ikoyi Lagos to do last night being, February 25 2023 to his 309,224 followers.” sic
“INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu sneaked into Lagos on the night of the election and met with some unknown persons in Ikoyi Lagos.”
A screenshot of the claim shared by Charly Boy
The claim alleged that the INEC chairman sneaked into Lagos to meet with an unknown person in Ikoyi.
The claim had the collaged picture of Tinubu, Yakubu and George.
His post has garnered over 1.9 million views, 13,341 retweets, 555 quotes, tweets, and 26,723 likes.
We sent Charly Boy a message on his X direct message on the tweets but he is yet to respond as of Sunday, June 25, 2023.
A number of network of account tweets on claim INEC visited Tinubu in Ikoyi
A search on X and Tweetdeck shows several accounts promoting the claim in a coordinated fashion with identical captions and collage images.
@Redcap_blondie also shared the claim, archived here, with similar text.
Her tweet generated over 146k views, 902 retweets, 22 quotes, tweets, and 1,498 likes.
@Redcap_blondie tweets on claim INEC visited Tinubu in Ikoyi
The residence of Bola Tinubu, then APC presidential candidate (now Nigerian President) is situated in the Ikoyi area of Lagos.
Reacting to the claim, the PDP chieftain, Bode George, denied saying INEC Chairman met with Tinubu in Lagos.
According to George, the claim was a strategy to confuse the polity.
“I don’t work at the Control Tower or Cargo Section of the airport. I am not an official of INEC, so how will I know the movement of INEC Chairman?”
“Everybody knows he is in Abuja as the Chief Returning Officer of the presidential election,” Bode George stated.
4. How claim that Obasanjo stormed INEC office spreads online
Another claim observed to have gone viral and spread in a coordinated manner was that former president Olusegun Obasanjo showed up at the INEC collation centre in Abuja with original result sheets of the election.
The tweet, which first appeared online on February 26, 2023, read, “Breaking News❗: Obasanjo storms INEC collection center in Abuja with the real results of all the 36 state and FTC”
“INEC chairman was in shock when Obasanjo showed up in Abuja INEC collect with 2023 original result sheet for all States, how Obasanjo got the result and…. Moro wai “” (sic)
@Redcap_blondie was also found to have been involved in spreading the claim archived here.
Furthermore, verification of the claim suggested that the campaign was executed hastily as the initials of Nigeria’s capital city, FCT, were written in FTC, which was wrong.
Multiple accounts which shared the claim used the exact text and image collage coordinately.
Examples of similar content were shared on Twitter about the claim Obasanjo stormed INEC office.
The claim was also found to have been shared on WhatsApp, Facebook and online blogs.
When we subjected the image to Google and Bing reverse image searches, it revealed that it had existed since January 2020, when Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo state, visited Obasanjo at his Abeokuta residence.
A search on the second picture showing INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu in the collage image showed that the photo was taken in 2019, during a pre-election press briefing.
The third image of Obasanjo holding a microphone and giving a speech was during the launch of Letterman, a book authored by the Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times Newspaper, Musikilu Mojeed, in 2022.
5. How X user spreads fake Adamawa governorship election results
The Presidential election was not the only one that saw fake results go viral on Elon Musk’s X.
One of such results that went viral was that of the Adamawa State governorship election.
Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, an APC governorship candidate, was declared winner of the Adamawa State Governorship election by a Twitter user going by the handle @Binani4Governor before INEC announced the official results on March 19, 2023.
The user posted a photo archived here showing the 21 local governments’ results, showing Binani had won the election.
A screenshot of the fake result posted on Twitter
The tweet has generated over 500k views, 1,150 retweets, 389 quotes tweets, and 4,479 likes.
We observed that the user tweets in support of the APC Adamawa governorship candidate, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed throughout the election period.
When the commission stopped compiling results to take a break, the user tweeted about it. At 5:59 p.m. on March 19, 2023, he announced the results, indicating that Governor Fintiri of the PDP received 406,617 votes while Binani received 409,909.
However, INEC declared the Adamawa election inconclusive on March 20, 2023, following the return from the break and the publication of the results from 21 local government areas.
Although INEC’s final results revealed that PDP Governor Ahmadu Fintiri received the most votes, the commission claimed that the number of votes that were later declared invalid outweighed Fintiri’s lead over that of Aisha Dahiru, the APC governorship candidate in the state.
According to INEC, Fintiri defeated Dahiru after the official results was counted with more than 30,000 votes.
Dahiru received 390,275 votes, while the current governor received 421,524 votes.
The PDP candidates prevailed in the rerun election, which was conducted on April 15, 2023.
Mohammed Mele, the INEC Returning Officer for the state, announced the official results.
Fintiri received 430,861 votes overall, while the APC candidate received 398,788.
6. How Twitter users spread fake quotes during the election
Another Twitter account found to have engaged in the spread of misinformation during the election is Chy Gold (@ifygold21).
The user @ifygold21, engages in attributing fake quotes to personalities and politicians.
Chy Gold Twitter handle
An analysis of the account using Twitter’s advanced search and Tweetdeck found several unverifiable quotes attributed to personalities and politicians on her account.
We found several quotes attributed to lawyers, celebrities and politicians on the Twitter account.
We found unconfirmed quotes attributed to former Senate President Bukola Saraki; Human Right Lawyer, Femi Falana; Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode; the then EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa (currently suspended from office) and renowned Economist, Professor Pat Utomi, among others.
All the quotes on the account were either in support of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate or against the APC and PDP candidates.
In a post to her 6,923 followers as of February 26, 2023, the account claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to give the then-presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, N500m naira new notes on the eve of the presidential and national assembly election.
The tweet, which Twitter has deleted, attributed the quote to Segun Agbage, the alleged bank managing director.
GTB, in response to the viral claim in a statement posted on its social media, refuted the report, describing the sponsors of the post as uninformed and malicious.
GTB’s response to the claim by @ifygold21 that it gave Tinubu N500M
It added that the name of its managing director is Miriam Olusanya and not Segun Agbaje, as posted by the sponsor of the tweet.
In another quote shared by the Twitter user on March 27, 2023, archived here, she claimed Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, Mike Ozekhome, said ex-convicts are approaching him to appeal their cases in court.
The user shared the quote with a picture of Ozekhome and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was then the President-elect.
”So many ex-convicts are approaching me to appeal their cases in court if Bola Tinubu wins in Tribunal by using Bola Tinubu’s drug trafficking case as a reference.”- Mike Ozekhome”, the claim read.
When contacted to speak on the claim, the lawyer refuted making the claim in a statement sent via WhatsApp.
His statement read, “I never made such a statement. This vile and fake story making the rounds and being widely circulated on the social media is fake, unfounded, baseless, and is a concocted lie from the pit of hell. I DENY IT. I DENOUNCE IT. I REJECT IT. I CONDEMN IT. It should be maximally ignored. Anyone who knows me and follows my trajectory will know that I never discuss personalities, but issues. They also know that I never use vile and disgusting expletives such as this in my ceaseless national conversation.” sic
Fake quotes shared by Chy Gold
Another quote shared by the user archived here, said the then chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa (now suspended), was investigating Peter Obi’s administration as Governor of Anambra State.
The claim read, “We are still investigating Peter Obi’s administration as Governor of Anambra State but we have not found any embezzlement of fund under him. — Bawa” (sic)
“We will make it public once we find any embezzlement of fund under his administration as Governor of Anambra State.” (sic)
But the EFCC, in a terse statement sent to through the anti-corruption agency’s official email address, denied that Bawa made the statement.
The statement read, “Please note, the executive chairman of the EFCC did not make this statement credited to him. You may have to reach out to Chy Gold, @ifygold21 to ask her the source of her post.” sic
7. Two popular Twitter accounts share misleading Excel sheet result
In a post to her over 300k followers, the Twitter user, Adetutu Balogun (@Tutsy22) alleged that a university lecturer had misrepresented the results at a collation site.
Adetutu supports the Labour Party presidential candidate and tweets in support of him before and during the election.
The tweet archived here, shared by Adetutu, is a video screengrab of an Excel sheet of the live collation of results broadcast by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
The tweet garnered over 1 million views, 4,958 retweets, 588 quoted tweets, and 6,736 likes.
A screenshot of Adetutu’s tweet
A check online found that the result Adetutu posted was that of the Oyo State’s 2023 Presidential Election result announced by the State returning officer, Professor Olusola Babatunde Kehinde.
The Excel screenshot tweeted by Adebutu was an incomplete result, which only captures part of the figure in the column, which sums up to give the overall result of political parties announced by the State returning officer.
Another claim shared on incomplete election results was by Senator Dino Melaye, a PDP member and spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential campaign team.
Dino shared a 30 seconds video archived here, captioned “INEC magic”, on March 2, 2023.
In the video, two voices could be heard discussing the result shown on the Excel sheet, which they said does not tally with the total results officially announced by INEC.
The video has now been watched 236.7k times, viewed 1.4M times, and had 4,304 retweets, 729 quoted tweets and 9,383 likes.
A Google search on the Excel sheet found the result was that of the Delta State Presidential election result announced by the State Collation Officer, Prof. Owunari Georgewill.
The Excel sheet in the footage tweeted by Dino was an incomplete result, which only captures part of the figure in the column, which sums up to give the overall results of political parties as announced by the State returning officer.
8. Again, Dino Melaye shares misleading video
Dino Melaye, again on March 4, 2023, tweeted a video a with a claim that the Nigerian Army accused Nyesom Wike, the then Rivers state governor, of attempting to bribe the military to compromise the 2023 general election.
The video archived here shows an army official on the podium saying Wike attempted to compromise security officials with large sums of money to influence the election outcome.
The 56-minute footage tweeted by Melaye has garnered over 59,000 video watches, 319,000 views, 1,537 retweets, 110 quoted tweets and 3615 likes as of Sunday, April 16, 2023.
The tweet garnered over 1 million views, 4,958 retweets, 588 quoted tweets, and 6,736 likes.
A check online found that the result Adetutu posted was that of the Oyo State’s 2023 Presidential Election result announced by the State returning officer, Professor Olusola Babatunde Kehinde.
The Excel screenshot tweeted by Adebutu was an incomplete result, which only captures part of the figure in the column, which sums up to give the overall result of political parties announced by the State returning officer.
Another claim shared on incomplete election results was by Senator Dino Melaye, a PDP member and spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential campaign team.
Dino shared a 30 seconds video archived here, captioned “INEC magic”, on March 2, 2023.
In the video, two voices could be heard discussing the result shown on the Excel sheet, which they said does not tally with the total results officially announced by INEC.
The video has now been watched 236.7k times, viewed 1.4M times, and had 4,304 retweets, 729 quoted tweets and 9,383 likes.
A Google search on the Excel sheet found the result was that of the Delta State Presidential election result announced by the State Collation Officer, Prof. Owunari Georgewill.
The Excel sheet in the footage tweeted by Dino was an incomplete result, which only captures part of the figure in the column, which sums up to give the overall results of political parties as announced by the State returning officer.
8. Again, Dino Melaye shares misleading video
Dino Melaye, again on March 4, 2023, tweeted a video a with a claim that the Nigerian Army accused Nyesom Wike, the then Rivers state governor, of attempting to bribe the military to compromise the 2023 general election.
The video archived here shows an army official on the podium saying Wike attempted to compromise security officials with large sums of money to influence the election outcome.
The 56-minute footage tweeted by Melaye has garnered over 59,000 video watches, 319,000 views, 1,537 retweets, 110 quoted tweets and 3615 likes as of Sunday, April 16, 2023.
The video was subjected to InVID video verification, which generated multiple reverse image searches; the results show that the video has been online since 2019.
The footage tweeted by Melaye is part of a 10 min 40-second video posted by Oak TV, titled “Elections: Nigerian Army accuses Gov. Wike of trying to bribe military men,” when the Army granted a press conference to address the discrepancies that happened during the 2019 election in Rivers State.
Further findings show the soldier giving the press conference was the then Nigerian Army Director of Public Relations Officer, Aminu Ilyasu, who accused the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, of attempting to bribe security agencies to comprise the 2019 general election and not related to the 2023 election.
