Claim : Video shows a man criticising Peter Obi that the village in Agulu has been without electricity and clean water for the past five months.

Verdict: Mis

Full Text:

On the 10th April 2024 an X user, @oyeniran_s, posted a video claiming that For the past five months, Peter Obi’s village in Agulu has been without electricity and clean water.

Obsolete video

Peter Obi who was the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, is from Amatutu village in Agulu community, which consists of 20 villages. The community also has prominent men and women in politics, captains of industries and academia, making it a major district to look out for when results roll in. It’s a 32-minute drive from Awka, the state capital.

In the one-minute, thirty-seconds viral video transcribed using pineye and manual transcription, the man was seen and heard speaking in Pidgin English, complaining about the lack of adequate social amenities in the village.

In the part of  the audio uploaded by @oyeniran_s  transcribed from the footage read thus:

“My people, Peter Obi’s village they do not have light for the past five months, their transformer got burnt, his own village, they do not have light. Peter Obi’s village, even old women are contributing N5000 to buy a new transformer, in Peter Obi’s village, they do not have light, they do not have water for up to five months”.

The video, at the time of writing this story, has gathered 196 reposts, 777k views, 210 quotes and 328 likes.

It was seen that the video caused reactions from Netizens like @ObiIk , who responded, ‘So everyone in Agulu dey use just one transformer? Do you even understand how transformers work?’,  @DrVic_Exotic was also negative about the video, saying that ‘There is nothing authentic about this video. It’s fake, possibly cooked up by you. Moreover, there’s no evidence to prove your claims. So, why do you want people to believe you?’.

Meanwhile, this claim surfaced on social media as a  reaction to the recent report of Peter Obi’s donation  the boreholes to some  northern communities to cushion the suffering and water needs of those communities. However, the development has rather  drawn negative reactions, leading to different narratives, hence, the spread of this video.

To know if this video in circulation is true, NDR Fact-Check submitted the claim to an investigation.

Verification:

Deploying key search,  using google, it was seen that the video has appeared on  the internet.

When the link was clicked, the search results showed that the video was not a recent post, as it was seen to be shared by a Facebook User Buharist Reporters on 2nd October, 2022, months before the build up of the 2023 general elections.

During NDR investigation, it was discovered that another Facebook user, on the same day, 2nd October, 2022 News Naija posted the same video.

Moreso, we got more findings on 6th October, 2022, Nigerian Civil Right Movement posted the same video resurfacing.

Thus, using a more advanced tool called Yandex Search, the punch newspaper on the 31 November, 2021  ‘Blackout hits Soludo, Obi, Uba’s communities, and 30 others in Anambra’ .

The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company stated this in a statement made available to journalists in Awka, Anambra State, by its Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Eze, on Monday.

The statement read in part, “The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc wishes to inform her esteemed customers in Awka and environs that the loss of supply currently being experienced is as a result of power failure from Agu-Awka Injection Substation.

This affected electricity supply to Awka District, Neni, and Agulu 33KV feeders under Ekwulobia District.

This media report is an indication that the erratic power supply announced by the electricity company was not peculiar to Peter Obi’s immediate village.

Conclusion:

The viral  video of  a man criticising Peter Obi that his village in Agulu has been without electricity and clean water for the past five months is misleading; Hence the  video being shared on X hand  by @Oyediran_s has  been on the internet since 2022 and it is being shared out of context as it is Misleading