By Shereefdeen Ahmad
A video clip showing the candidate of the People Democratic Party(PDP) in Kogi State governorship election, Dino Melaye has surfaced on Facebook with the claim that the former senator fainted following the announcement of the election result on Monday, 13th November.
The video, with a logo of Channels TV, showed Dino Melaye being assisted out of a car rushed to a place that looks like a hospital —a situation that did show the former senator might be suffering from a sickness.
The clip is circulating following the announcement of the results of the Kogi governorship polls on Monday.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) declared the candidate of All Progressives Congress Governorship candidate, Usman Ododo as the winner of the 11th November governorship election in the State.
Ododo won the election with 446,237 votes, beating his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party who garnered 259,052, while Dino Melaye of PDP got 46,362 votes.
The video which was also published by Facebook page Diamond TV on Tuesday, 14th November 2023 with the caption: “Dino Melaye Fall Sick Immediately he lost the election.”
Additionally, a Facebook user, Specie posted the video on the Tuesday, 14th November with the caption: “Dino Malaye fainted upon hearing his loss at Saturday poll. Thank God for those who were with him then otherwise he would have been a goner.”
Eden Isong also posted the video on Tuesday, 14th November on Facebook with the same caption.
The Claim
Dino Melaye fainted after the announcement of the 2023 Kogi State governorship election result.
The Findings
Findings shows that the video is an old one, thus the caption attached to it is incorrect.
Google reverse image search using the video’s thumbnail shows that the footage has been online since at least January 2019.
A report published about it could be seen here, here and here.
Verdict
The video showing Dino Melaye assisted out of a car is an old one. Therefore, the caption attached to it that he fainted after the results of the election is incorrect.