A Twitter Account with more than 25,000 followers posted an image on Jun 02, 2022, claiming “Olusegun Obasanjo also held talks about peace with the great political scholar Professor Merara Gudina!”
By the time this article was published, the post had more than 150 reactions and was retweeted more than 35 times.
However, HaqCheck looked into the image and rated it FALSE.
The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with TPLF forces in the Tigray region since November 2020.
A humanitarian truce was declared by the federal government and was also adopted by the TPLF a few months ago.
On 26th August 2021, Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of the Federal government of Nigeria, was appointed as High Representative for the Horn of Africa region. The representative is entitled to work towards entrenching durable peace and stability within the Horn of Africa.
To seek a peaceful solution H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo met with the leader of TPLF and government officials several times. The representative has been tasked with convincing parties to accept a ceasefire and choose dialogue.
On May 31, the AU special envoy met with TPLF leader, Debretsion Gebremichael in the capital of the region of Tigray, Mekelle. After two days, he arrived in Bale Robe Oromia state, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and government officials for a working visit.
Based on this background, the Twitter post came out claiming that Obasanjo talked about peace with Professor Merara Gudina, a prominent Oromo opposition leader.
However, the image was taken from an old publication on the Internet. The original image was published on African Union’s official website on Jun 21, 2021, with the caption “The Head of the AU election observation mission, H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, meeting with the leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Dr. Merera”.
Therefore, HaqCheck confirmed that the image used to support the claim is old and rated it FALSE.
