FACT CHECK: Did Adamu Garba Say Boko Haram, Bandits Are Freedom Fighters of Northern Nigeria?

A photo of a former All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba, is currently circulating on WhatsApp. The image has the inscription, “Boko Haram and Fulani Bandits are Northern Nigeria Freedom Fighters – Adamu Garba.” Underneath the write-up, “Youth Progressive Party” is boldly written. Verification Checks by Daily Trust revealed that the purported claim was […]

A photo of a former All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba, is currently circulating on WhatsApp.

The image has the inscription, “Boko Haram and Fulani Bandits are Northern Nigeria Freedom Fighters – Adamu Garba.” Underneath the write-up, “Youth Progressive Party” is boldly written.

Verification

Checks by Daily Trust revealed that the purported claim was published by some blogs and media outlets as far back as February 28, 2022.

A day earlier, Adamu Garba had in a series of tweet via his official Twitter handle, @adamugarba, described people of southern Nigeria as hypocrites, saying they have always been reluctant to condemn criminalities when carried out by people of the region; as against how they displayed outrage when perpetrators were northerners.

He tweeted, “It seems to me that we have the gift of status, position, respect, and money for those killing and destroying in the South, while we have bombs and bullets for those doing the same thing in the North.

“You see the hypocrisy in administering the conflict resolution in Nigeria?”

Further investigations sshowed that “Youth Progressive Party” written under the photo in circulation is not a registered political party in Nigeria and was crafted deliberately by mischief makers to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the public.

Garba had withdrawn from the presidential race due to the high cost of obtaining the APC expression of interest and nomination forms and the cost of running for political office. He later dumped the party and purchased the presidential nomination forms of the Young Progressive Party (YPP).

Scrutinizing all the tweets Garba made, one could not find where he explicitly said Boko Haram and Fulani Bandits are Northern Nigeria Freedom Fighters. His tweets were only insinuated to mean so.

Conclusion

Based on available evidence, it is established that Garba did not make the claim as purported and the Youth Progressive Party is not known in Nigeria as a political party as it is not registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This fact check was done in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)