EU report on 2023 elections link Keyamo, Fani-Kayode to fake news

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) in its final report on Nigeria’s 2023 general elections tagged Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode to fake news reports.

“There was an increased incidence of misleading information in the days leading up to and during the election,” the EU stated in the report.

“In many cases, false reports were spread by well-known personalities associated with political parties.”

The EU report published some quotes attributed to Keyamo and Fani-Kayode in its final report. Both were spokespersons for the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential flagbearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“On 12 February, Festus Keyamo from APC promoted information published by a suspicious website, accusing Labour Party (LP) candidate, 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 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar had a secret meeting with serving military generals in Abuja,” it added.

“He accused Atiku of wanting to incite chaos, provoke a coup d’état, and establish a new and unconstitutional order.

“Fani-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.”

The EU Observer Mission had highlighted “enduring systemic weaknesses” in the election, which the PDP and LP claim were not credible.

However, the Presidency described the EU report as a “poorly done desk job” and refuted claims of election flaws.

The Nigerian government in a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Dele Alake rejected the EU’s verdict on the election which saw the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as winner.