On Thursday, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Nigeria’s president (@NGRPresident) posted a press release saying President Bola Tinubu met with the country’s 36 state governors earlier in the day to address food security challenges.

The release was titled: ‘President Tinubu to 36 state governors: There must be zero tolerance for incompetence; support local farmers to boost food production and remove rent seekers.’

Attached to the post was an image of the president flanked by some governors. In the image were the press release title and Thursday’s date written as “15.02.24”. This picture has generated controversy, as it features Yahaya Bello, a former Kogi State governor.

CLAIM: Picture shows Bello attended a meeting of governors with Tinubu on Thursday.

Following the publication, several X users began questioning Bello’s presence as his tenure as governor expired on January 27, 2024, when Usman Ododo assumed office.

Some of the tweets questioning Bello’s presence have been seen by over 25,000 people as of press time.

VERIFICATION: To confirm Bello’s presence at the meeting as the image suggested, FIJ checked images from news reports as well as other images the presidency’s account shared.

We found discrepancies between some of the other pictures and the one featuring Bello. Attires worn by attendees were different in two shots FIJ put side by side.

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In the first shot with Bello, Dapo Abiodun, the Ogun State governor, can be seen wearing bright blue attire, but in the second image, also shared by the presidency, he can be seen wearing a dark blue one.

Kashim Shettima, the vice president, can be seen in the first frame dressed in black, but in the second frame, he wears brown attire.

We also found an image of Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, Kwara State governor. In the first image, he can be seen standing to Tinubu’s left. He wears brown attire, but in the second frame, he is in white. These discrepancies suggest the first image with Bello was taken on a different date from the others.

FIJ scoured the internet to know when the controversial image was first published, and we found a June 7, 2023 news report.

This report was about the president’s first meeting with the state governors. The picture was a product of that meeting, and Bello was still a governor.

VERDICT: The image shared by the presidency on Thursday is misleading, and there’s no evidence to show that Bello attended the latest meeting.