The European Union Election Observation Mission has identified a former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo and a prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Femi Fani-Kayode, as spreaders of fake news during Nigeria’s 2023 general elections.
In its recent report, the EU accused Keyamo and Fani-Kayode of misleading Nigerians by distributing false information throughout the 2023 elections.
The EU Observers provided examples of instances where the APC leaders spread fake news while promoting their candidates.
The report reads, “There was an increased incidence of misleading information in the days leading up to and during the election. In many cases, false reports were spread by well-known personalities associated with political parties.
“On February 12, Festus Keyamo from APC promoted information published by a suspicious website, accusing Peter Obi of bribery. The story quickly became viral and was in a few hours debunked.
“Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of aviation and an APC party member, made a claim on February 11, 2023, that the PDP presidential candidate Abubakar had a secret meeting with serving military generals in Abuja.
“He accused Atiku of wanting to incite chaos, provoke a coup d’état, and establish a new and unconstitutional order. Kayode posted this claim across multiple social media platforms, and it garnered 281.2k total impressions. The next day, he posted that the Army denied reports about a meeting between its officers and Atiku.”
