FANI KAYODE REFUTED DUMPING PDP

A former Nigerian aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has denied claims that he has dumped the People’s Democratic Party.

Fani-Kayode told AFP Wednesday that it was “ridiculous” for anyone to ask if he was still a member of the PDP, stating that his posts on his Facebook account and his recent interviews had made that clear.

He was reacting a video which went viral on the social media claiming that he has dumped the PDP for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a few days before a postponed presidential election.

The video shared by Facebook user “Tukur Yerima”, was shared nearly 8,000 times, and has been viewed more than 121,000 times with the caption “Breaking News… 48 Hours to Presidential election, a chieftain of PDP, Mr Femi Fani Kayode defect to APC”.

The post claims Fani-Kayode said “PDP is a sinking ship” and advised “Nigerians to join hand with Buhari, Tinubu, El-Rufa’i, to move Nigeria forward to the Next Level”.

However, a cross-check by AFP analysis using InVid, an online video verification tool, and other reverse image search tools, showed the clip was part of a 12-minute video posted on YouTube in 2013.

In 2013, Fani-Kayode joined the APC, which was the main opposition at the time, and he then claimed the PDP was a “sinking ship”, following a notorious governors’ forum vote where the candidate with the fewest votes was declared the winner.

Fani-Kayode left the APC in 2014 and has since remained in the PDP, and stayed a strong critic of APC government.

(AFP)