Fact-Check: Did Former Gov Oyinlola ‘Verbally Attack’ Bola Tinubu at Campaign Rally in Osun recently? 

Fact-Check: Did Former Gov Oyinlola ‘Verbally Attack’ Bola Tinubu at Campaign Rally in Osun recently? 

Claim: A campaign video going viral on Social Media claims that the former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola attacked everything about the personality of the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a campaign rally for Ademola Adeleke, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming election in Osun state this month July 2022.

Full Text: While he was speaking at a gathering that looked like a political campaign rally in the clip, former governor of Osun state, Oyinlola alleged that everything about Tinubu is fake, raging from his name to his state of origin. 

In the video which is also obtained by PRNigeria, Oyinlola claimed that Tinubu was not from Lagos. According to him, Tinubu has a tattoo of lizard on his body which is the mark of Osun indigenes. He challenged Tinubu to uncover his body to disapprove his claim and show the public that he has lied.

Speaking in Yoruba, Oyinlola said, “Bola Tinubu from head to toe is fake, I still want to add something, because his age is fake, his mother is fake, his father is fake, the school he attended is fake, his state of origin is fake, PDP! Power!!!.

“I want to tell you something today and if you want to know, if you see Tinubu, let him expose/show his hand and stomach, there is cartoon of lizard there, which indigene of Lagos would have that mark except Osun indigene,” he claimed. 

Verification: Though the clip appeared blurry, PRNigeria extracted Jpeg keyframes from the footage using https://ezgif.com/ and subjected the image result to a revervese image search  but there was no result matching the footage. 

However, close observation of the footage revealed that it was during the Ekiti State Governorship rerun campaign in 2009 where Oyinlola in his then capacity as Osun Governor and PDP leader in the zone was flanked by other givernors including Alao Akala of Oyo, Segun Oni of Ekiti and Gbenga Daniel of Ogun States.

PRNigeria observes that Adebayo Alao Akala who was in the video died on 12th January 2022, months before Tinubu emerged APC Presidential flagbearer and couldn’t have appeared in a recent campaign. 

Similarly, Segun Oni, recently defected to SDP after he failed to clinch APC’s governorship ticket for the election slated for this June 18 and couldn’t have been on what seemed like a PDP campaign rally. 

Lastly, Gbenga Daniel joined the APC in February 2021, two years after leaving partisan politics. 

Ọlagunsoye Oyinlọla – born 3 February 1951 – is a retired Nigerian general. He became governor of Osun State in Nigeria in May 2003, and was reelected in 2007. He was a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). On 26 November 2010, a court of appeal nullified his election. He later defected to the APC shortly before the 2014 Osun State governorship election. He rejoined the PDP in march 2020 and is a member of the party’s BOT.

Conclusion: In its findings, PRNigeria reveals that an old campaign clip from the Ekiti State Gubernatorial rerun in 2009, is being paraded as recent footage on the social media. The video was recorded in Ekiti in 2009. It is therefore false to claim that it was at a campaign rally in Osun State in 2022.

By PRNigeria