IN SHORT: There isn’t any proof that justice Monica Dongban-Mensem mentioned that Bola Tinubu had “failed” and that the 2023 presidential election petition tribunal had been supplied bribes they could not resist.

A report posted on Fb attributed a controversial assertion to justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, president of Nigeria’s courtroom of enchantment.

The poorly written publish reads: “Simply In: I oversees the worst Presidential election petition because the historical past of Nigeria, the cash supplied to us, was what no decide can overlook, Tinubu failed woefully – Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem purportedly categorical remorse.”

Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the February 2023 presidential election. However some opposition events rejected the election outcomes and challenged the result in courtroom.

In September, the appeals courtroom dismissed the opposition’s case and upheld Tinubu’s victory.

The Fb post includes a link to a weblog publish with the identical headline. Different Facebook posts with the identical declare embrace hyperlinks to a special weblog publish (Notice: See extra situations listed on the finish of this report.)

However did Dongban-Mensem make the assertion attributed to her within the posts? We checked.

No proof to help the declare

Dongban-Mensem was not one of many five judges who served on the 2023 presidential election petitions tribunal.

Given her place, it will’ve made headlines if she had made such an announcement in opposition to the Nigerian judiciary. However we now have discovered no credible media stories of this.

A few of the Fb posts hyperlink to a report revealed by the Igbo Instances Journal, a weblog infamous for spreading pretend information. A few of its articles have been debunked here, here and here.

There isn’t any proof that Dongban-Mensem made the assertion attributed to her. Such a declare has implications for the popularity of the decide and the Nigerian judiciary.

In July 2023, Africa Test debunked a declare that one of many 5 tribunal judges had resigned over strain on the courtroom to rule in opposition to the Labour Party‘s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

The declare could be discovered here, here, here, here, here, here and here.