By Ajibola Amzat
Three photographs purporting to show President Bola Tinubu receiving opposition candidate Omoyele Sowore at Aso Rock, the presidential residence, have been circulating widely on social media.
As of Sunday, April 4, the images were being shared across Nigeria’s most popular social platforms: WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Sowore is the opposition candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC in the 2023 general election.
According to the photo, Sowore purportedly visited Aso Rock, the Nigerian seat of government where he was received by President Tinubu.
InvestigateNigeria checks confirm that these photographs were generated by Artificial Intelligence, AI.
First, the shoes worn by Sowore are of different colours. In two of the photographs, he was wearing a pair of black shoes and in another, the colour of his shoes was brown.
Secondly, the badge on President Tinubu’s blue dress was showing on the right side of a photo, while it is on the left side in the second photo.
The color shades of the president’s dress also vary from navy blue to deep blue.
Lastly, Sowore looks slightly taller in the photo shared online.
Mr. Sowore dismissed the reports when reached by The InvestigateNigeria. He said: I’ve seen the photos, and it reeks of desperation. It appears they now consider me the most credible candidate, to the point of fabricating a fake AI endorsement just to prop up Tinubu. In the end, it only signals one thing, Tinubu will have to hand over power to Sowore soon.”
A spokesperson for President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
