FACT CHECK: Viral video of Lawan, APC governors ‘visiting Atiku’ is old

A video of Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Mai Mala Buni, former caretaker chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, has gone viral on social media platforms.

In the 29-second video, Atiku, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, could be seen sitting next to the senate president and Buni, governor of Yobe, while other northern governors and leaders flanked them.

The footage has been shared on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. 

Social media users, who shared the video, claimed that Lawan and Buni are leading other northern stakeholders, particularly governors, to work with the PDP presidential candidate after the senate president failed to clinch the APC ticket.

On Wednesday, Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor, won the APC presidential primary after he polled 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other presidential hopefuls in the election.

Among the hopefuls was Lawan, the “consensus candidate” of Abdullahi Adamu, APC national chairman, who polled 152 votes to come a distant fourth.

The video, which was shared on Wednesday by “Unofficial: Support Nigerian Military”, a Facebook page with over 200,000 followers, now has over 23,000 views, 288 comments and 569 shares.

The caption of the video reads, “Northern APC governors and senate president went to visit Atiku. These are people that just handed the ticket of their party to Bola Tinubu and in less than 24 hours they are flocking together with the flag bearer of an opposition party.” 

“If this is not a conspiracy then tell me what it is. They collected all his dollar, gave him ticket and turned their backs immediately.”

Tari Nemi, a Twitter user who shared the video said, “Senate president and APC northern governors with PDP’s Atiku.”

https://twitter.com/miz_chinwendu/status/1534611303461011457?t=WDsXwd9QLey8QBiadw37JA&s=19

Northern APC governors and Senate President (Lawan) went to visit Atiku. These are people that just handed ticket of their party to Bola Tinubu and in less than 24 hours they are flocking together with the flag bearer of PDP.

Pure conspiracy!

Vote Peter Obi | Ogbonnaya Onu pic.twitter.com/pBQhXJAaXI

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— 𝑴𝒂𝒂𝒛ị 𝑵𝒘𝒆𝒌𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑪.𝑬🤴 (@Donnesty) June 9, 2022

https://twitter.com/OtonyeDouglas1/status/1534941934107643906?t=WDsXwd9QLey8QBiadw37JA&s=19

VERIFICATION

Checks by TheCable show that the video in circulation dates back to January 22 when Atiku, Lawan, Buni and other northern leaders paid a condolence visit to Dahiru Mangal, a Katsina business magnate, over the loss of his mother.

The former vice-president had posted pictures from the visit on social media.

“Earlier today, I paid a condolence visit to Alhaji Dahiru Mangal in Katsina over the loss of his beloved mother and matriarch of their family, Hajiya Murja Bara’u. I pray that Almighty Allah will comfort the family and grant her Aljannah Firdaus in paradise,” Atiku had written on Twitter.

Earlier today, I paid a condolence visit to Alhaji Dahiru Mangal in Katsina over the loss of his beloved mother and matriarch of their family, Hajiya Murja Bara'u. I pray that Almighty Allah will comfort the family and grant her Aljannah Firdaus in Paradise. pic.twitter.com/uCGGn5WnD3

— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 22, 2022

Some national newspapers also reported the condolence visit of the northern leaders to Mangal’s residence.

VERDICT

The video shared on social media claiming that Lawan, Buni and some northern leaders went to form an alliance with Atiku ahead of 2023 election is not recent.

The viral video is misleading.