Claim: Some social media posts with accompanying photos say Nigerians in the UK have gathered in protest to demand that President Buhari be sent back to Nigeria when he arrives in the UK for a medical check-up.
While there is no available evidence to prove that Nigerians in London had gathered to protest Buhari’s arrival, the photos upon which the claims were made are from past unrelated events.
Full text:
Nigeria’s presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, in a public statement on Monday, March 29, 2021, indicated that the president, Muhammadu Buhari, will travel on Tuesday to the UK for a medical check-up and will return in about a fortnight. This news was widely reported across Nigeria and other international platforms including the BBC and Bloomberg.
The information was greeted with mixed reactions but many expressed their frustration over the development according to Africa News.
Perfectly fitting into the claims of Nigerians expressing their frustration over Buhari’s UK travel were social media posts such as this and this that claimed that some Nigerians had gathered in the UK ahead of Buhari’s arrival to force him to go back to Nigeria.
These posts were made with accompanying photos to prove the development and have received several thousands of reactions.
But is this true?
Verification
A Google reverse image search on the two accompanying photos showed that the two images were from different unrelated events.
Our search showed that the first photo (above) showed that it was taken outside Downing Street in London at an #ENDSars protest on October 21, 2020.
The photo is credited to photographer Guy Smallman and hosted on GettyImages.
The second photo (above), per our search, dates back to November 2019 when some protesters led by the “Take it Back Movement” and “Free Sowore Now” staged a protest in front of the official residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom over the arrest of Nigerian journalist Omoyele Sowore.
This was reported by Nigeria’s Guardian Newspaper and many other news platforms.
Conclusion
While there is no information or evidence to confirm that some Nigerians have gathered in the UK to send Buhari back on his arrival in London, the photos used to make the claim are from different unrelated events that happened between 2019 and 2020.
