Fact Check: Did Prof Aderinto Call Tinubu’s Win “Stolen Mandate”?

Saheed Aderinto, a Nigerian professor at Florida International University, who recently won the 2023 Dan David Prize, was quoted to have told Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, to return his alleged stolen mandate.

A Twitter handle “Saheed Aderinto” on Monday, March 13, had stirred reactions after reacting to Tinubu’s congratulatory message on the blue app.

The now-viral tweet has garnered over 7,000 retweets and 2,819 likes at the time of filing this report.

The award-winning Nigerian Professor of History was quoted to have told Tinubu while reacting to his congratulatory message on his recent feat, to return his “stolen mandate”.

“Thanks anyway for the recognition, I hope you restore Our stolen Mandate,” the tweet read.

VERIFICATION
In a bid to ascertain the viability of the tweet, TRIBUNE ONLINE fact-checked Prof Aderinto’s social media profile.

Our findings showed the US-based Nigerian professor is currently not on Twitter. The purported tweet emanated from a parody (fake) account that was created in October 2019.

Further checks reveal Prof Aderinto has also debunked the purported tweet, as the said parody account was created without his consent.

“I don’t have a Twitter account. I see that a parody account has been created in my name. I didn’t make those statements on Twitter,” he wrote.

Screenshot of his rebuttal statement below:

VERDICT
The claim in the circulating tweet is false and misleading.