Viral BBC News Yoruba Post is False
The Claim
President Buhari is dead.
News posted on
Emerging story
On Thursday, June 10th, multiple social media handles reposted an initial post from BBC News Yoruba Facebook handle's live video, which suggested that President Muhammadu Buhari is late.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar's investigation into the claim confirms that the BBC News Yoruba Facebook handle posted the circulating message during the live video. Still, our investigation demonstrates that it has since deleted the controversial sentence from the feed.
Although the BBC corrected the error, several individuals on Facebook had captured the message both as video and photos. They ran along with the claim, with many such posts getting several shares and re-posts.
Misbar concludes that the claim was an error on the part of the BBC News Yoruba and that the information is false.
The error occurred during the live coverage by the BBC News Yoruba handle of the president’s commissioning of the Lagos-Ibadan 157-kilometer standard gauge railway project built at the cost of $1.5 billion in Lagos.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been in the spotlight in recent days. First was his statement regarding South East self-rule agitators whom he had said would be dealt with ‘in the language they understand.’ Both Facebook and Twitter pulled down the statement as it was deemed genocidal, which led to Twitter’s suspension.
President Buhari was also in the news again on Wednesday 9th June following his Arise TV news crew interview. He spoke on issues ranging from why he chooses to appoint only Northerners to sensitive national positions, killings by Fulani herders, and insecurity in the South West. His responses to these issues further drew the ire of Nigerians, with many concluding that he is biased and nepotic.
