US Congratulated Tinubu on Election Victory – PRNigeria Fact-check Exposes Fake News
By Idris Umar Feta
A PRNigeria fact-check has exposed as false claims widely circulating on social media suggesting that the United States of America did not congratulate Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu, over his election victory.
While many social media users posted the claims on their timelines, a twitter user @enounoadegbite while replying to a tweet posted by Presidential campaign spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, said: “I just knew that as the news was going round Twitter yesterday, that US did not congratulate Tinubu, FesTHIEF (Festus) Keyamo will surely cook up another lie in defense. FesTHIEF (Festus) where, when and how did the US congratulate Tinubu? Yeye dey smell.”
Checks by PRNigeria showed that Plus TV Africa, Vanguard and other credible media outlets reported that international communities including the United States of America, United Kingdom and France, actually congratulated the President-elect, after he was declared winner of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
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According to PR-Nigeria checks, the United States, through its State Department spokesman, Ned Price, had congratulated Nigeria and Tinubu, on March 01, 2023 on his twitter handle.
Ned wrote that: “We congratulate the people of Nigeria, President-elect Bola Tinubu, and all political leaders on the February 25 election results, and their contributions to advancing and strengthening the democratic process in a new era for Nigeria’s democracy.”
Price acknowledged the dissatisfaction among some Nigerians over the validity of the results, but called on all political actors to embrace peace.
“We understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted,” he said.
“Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral process,” Price said, urging political leaders to register their concerns through established legal “mechanisms.”
“Based on the information available to PRNigeria from several sources, the US actually congratulated Nigerians and Tinubu officially on his victory in the election in a statement by the spokesperson of State Department, Ned Prince,” the fact-check revealed.
PRNigeria therefore concluded that the claim that the US did not congratulate Tinubu on his election victory is FALSE.
