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← All fact checksMorning run · November 14, 2026 · #11 by reach
PoliticsEvent claim

Was Tinubu's convoy stoned at the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja?

Did worshippers throw stones at President Bola Tinubu's convoy and chant 'Ba ma yi' ('we don't want you') as he left Abuja's Central Mosque after Friday prayers on 13 November 2026?

Misleading

Hostile chanting is real and documented; the stoning is unverified, denied by the Presidency, and not shown.

The video is real footage of President Bola Tinubu's convoy leaving the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, Abuja, after Friday prayers on 13 November 2026, as a crowd chants 'Ba ma yi, ba ma so'. But the claim that the crowd is stoning the convoy is unverified, denied by the Presidency, and not visible in the clip. WTF rates the post MISLEADING.

+3Sources ↓Original post ↗
Likely genuine
The post as it circulated, labelled by our media check.Video · 2:46 · 720×1280

Claims

✓ 2 true

Nigerians stoned President Tinubu's convoy as it left the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja12346

“Nigerians stone tinubu as he passes by the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja... As they stone his convoy.”

~ MisleadingCentral claimModerate confidence

A hostile reception on 13 November 2026 is not in doubt. Premium Times, Leadership and TheCable all describe worshippers chanting against the president as his convoy left the mosque. The disputed element is the stoning. Two Nigerian outlets, Peoples Gazette and Naija News, reported that stones were thrown, but both lean on the same circulating clip and eyewitness accounts rather than independent verification. Tinubu's media aide Bayo Onanuga said the claim was 'not true', and another presidential aide, O'tega Ogra, released counter-footage showing the president being cheered. A Newswatch fact-check concluded there was no independently verified evidence that Tinubu was stoned after the prayers. The attached video shows a controlled departure with the crowd behind a metal barrier and no stones or projectiles visible in the sampled keyframes. Because the anger and the chants are real but the stoning is asserted beyond what the evidence supports, the caption is misleading rather than fabricated.

Still open: Whether any object was thrown at any point during the departure remains unresolved; the specific uploader of this clip and the exact moment it captures were not established.

Citizens could be heard chanting 'Ba Ma Yi' (we don't want you) during the incident356

“Citizens can be heard chanting “Ba Ma Yi!””

✓ TrueHigh confidence

This part of the post holds up. Premium Times, Leadership, Newswatch and Naija News all report that worshippers chanted 'Ba ma yi, ba ma so' — Yoruba for 'we don't want you, we don't want it' — and some accounts add 'Tinubu Must Go' as the convoy departed the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque. The chant is corroborated across outlets that otherwise disagree about the stoning, which makes it the most solid element of the post. One caveat: the video attached to this post captures 'God bless!' in its transcript rather than the chant, so the chanting is established by the reporting around the event, not by the audio of this specific clip.

The incident took place at the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja as Tinubu was passing by13

“as he passes by the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja”

✓ TrueHigh confidence

The location and date check out. Tinubu attended Jumu'ah prayers at the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, Abuja, on Friday 13 November 2026, arriving at about 1:49 p.m. according to Leadership, with Premium Times and Newswatch covering the same visit. The one small inaccuracy is the word 'passing': Tinubu was leaving the mosque after prayers, not merely passing by. That wording matters less than it might seem, because the hostile reception happened on departure, which is what the video appears to show. But it is a reminder that captions often compress real events into looser phrasing than the underlying reporting supports.

What was posted

X

A post on X shares a short handheld video of a presidential motorcade moving through a crowded street outside a mosque in Abuja. The caption frames the clip as breaking news of Nigerians stoning President Tinubu's convoy as it passed the Area 1 Central Mosque. The post asks readers to believe that the footage shows a crowd pelting the convoy with stones while chanting rejection slogans.

“BREAKING: Jungle don ripe. Nigerians stone tinubu as he passes by the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja. Citizens can be heard chanting “Ba Ma Yi!” As they stone his convoy. ✌🏾”

Posted on X by the account originalproflle (display handle MaziTundeEdnutfan), which presents the clip as breaking news without naming a source for the footage or the stoning claim.

Who posted it

X
@originalproflle
View the account on X ↗

Account check

Looks like a genuine account18%
Likelihood of automation45%

Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.

What stood out

  • Handle @originalproflle displays as 'MaziTundeEdnutfan' — a fan/aggregator persona modelled on Nigerian celebrity blogger Tunde Ednut, not a real named person or newsroom; bio says 'shaderoom of Africa... Not affiliated with tundeednut'.
  • Handle itself ('proflle' = misspelt 'profile') plus a lookalike backup handle @originaIprofIIe (capital I's for l's) is a classic ban-evasion/impersonation pattern and indicates a multi-account cluster.
  • Nigerian Democratic Report's fact-checker traced a fabricated Trump quote about Nigeria's election to 'MaziTundeEdnutfan', and described the account as having 'a documented record of spreading political disinformation'; the same handle was flagged for the false Goodluck Jonathan ₦500bn story.
  • Same fact-check cites the persona under a different handle (@HonestNarrative) while a July 2026 fact-check cites @maziTundeEdnutfan — evidence of repeated handle churn/renaming, consistent with the account being rebranded after flagging.
  • On 5 July 2026 it amplified the fabricated 'Jonathan offered ₦500bn to split South-South votes' claim sourced from Igbo Times Magazine, a site repeatedly linked to unverified political stories (debunked by Jonathan's office, Africa Check, DUBAWA).
  • In Nov 2026 it pushed a truncated Tinubu quote ('Poverty is not a shameful thing' — Tinubu advises Nigerians to embrace poverty), stripping the second half of a 2023 speech to reverse its meaning.
  • Sourcing is typically re-hosted TikTok/Instagram clips with unattributed or unverified captions (e.g. labelling a man an 'alleged Okpebholo supporter' behind a Davido/Adeleke threat video with no independent confirmation).
  • Overtly partisan, pro-Obi/anti-Tinubu framing with engagement-farming rituals ('Day 280 of saying GOOD MORNING to all OBIdients till we win 2027… Mark your register here!').
  • Counterweight: much of its content is genuine viral UGC that mainstream outlets (SaharaReporters, RNN, Nairaland, blogs) later cite and embed, and it has real human replies/interactions — so it functions as a high-volume human-run aggregator, not a purely automated bot.
  • Profile is unverified, has ~28,000 posts, and provided metadata (bio, avatar, creation date, follower count) is absent from the submission — all consistent with a disposable/rebranded account.
Signals (12)+
Post count approx
28000
Posting cadence
Very high — multiple posts daily, dozens of viral clips/commentary per week; daily 'good morning' engagement-bait thread
Follower ratio
Unknown
Bio
The shaderoom of Africa. Don't call me a blogger. This is a fan account to bring IG experience to you. Not affiliated with tundeednut. Backup: @originaIprofIIe
Display name persona
MaziTundeEdnutfan (fan account of celebrity blogger Tunde Ednut)
Lookalike backup account
@originaIprofIIe (capital I substituted for l)
Prior or alternate handles
@HonestNarrative (cited by NDRFactcheck, July 2026); @maziTundeEdnutfan (cited by NDRFactcheck, July 2026)
Fact check history
Fabricated Trump statement on Nigeria's election (NDRFactcheck, 8 Jul 2026 — Fabricated); False Goodluck Jonathan ₦500bn vote-splitting claim (NDRFactcheck, Africa Check, 5–23 Jul 2026); Truncated/misleading Tinubu 'poverty is not shameful' quote (West Africa Weekly, 5 Nov 2026); Unverified 'Okpebholo supporter threatening Davido/Adeleke' video framing (RNN, Aug 2026)
Amplification source
Igbo Times Magazine and other low-reliability sites flagged by DUBAWA/Africa Check
Notable news coverage
Frequently quoted by SaharaReporters, RNN, Nairaland, NaijaPodNews, West Africa Weekly — mainly as a relay of viral clips
Content type
Political commentary + viral video aggregation (Nigeria 2027 election cycle, insecurity, cost of living)
Partisan lean
Opposition-leaning, pro-Peter Obi / anti-Tinubu

Account checked November 14, 2026, 03:20 UTC

The media

Video
Likely genuinePresented as real footage· The claim depends on it

✓ What is genuine

The footage itself appears to be genuine handheld video of Tinubu's motorcade leaving the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, on 13 November 2026. The problem is the claim placed on top of it, not the imagery.

The tells

  • ●●● Strong signal The clip shows police motorcycle outriders in white-and-green livery, black SUVs, an ambulance and uniformed security in a daylight street scene consistent with a Nigerian presidential motorcade.our visual review
  • ●●● Strong signal The crowd is held behind a metal barrier and no stones or projectiles are visible in the sampled keyframes; the transcript captures 'God bless!' rather than chanting.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal Our detector scored the clip at roughly 0.04 for AI generation and near zero for deepfake, with 'not AI generated' at 0.999.our detector
  • ●●○ Supporting signal The scene matches independent reporting of the same mosque departure, including the location and the security build-up.Premium Times, Leadership and TheCable

Synthetic-media detector

Detector ran

The claim stands or falls on whether the media is real, so the detector ran.

AI-generated likelihood4%
Deepfake likelihood0%

Scores are the detector’s estimate for the file as uploaded. A low score does not rule out editing, a spliced caption, or footage shown out of context — those are judged above. Model v3.

How we checked the media

  • Reviewed sampled keyframes of the video by eye for the motorcade layout, security presence, crowd barriers and surrounding streetscape.
  • Ran the clip through our AI-generation detector (Hive v3), which returned a very low AI-generated score and a negligible deepfake score.
  • Compared the scene described in the footage with independent reporting of the same motorcade departure.

Sources

6 sources reviewed

Further reading

  • 2Newswatch (Nigeria) The Newswatch fact-check lays out why no verified evidence supports the stoning claim.
  • 6Premium Times Premium Times gives the fullest account of the chanting and the eyewitness explanation about security restrictions.
  • 1TheCable TheCable documents the presidential aide's denial and the counter-footage of Tinubu being cheered.

The full story

The kernel of truth here is that President Bola Tinubu did receive a hostile reception outside a major Abuja mosque. On Friday 13 November 2026 he attended Jumu'ah prayers at the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, arriving at about 1:49 p.m., according to Leadership. As his convoy prepared to leave, a section of the crowd chanted 'Ba ma yi, ba ma so' — Yoruba for 'we don't want you, we don't want it' — and in some accounts 'Tinubu Must Go'. Premium Times, Leadership, TheCable and Newswatch all report that much.

What the reporting does not settle is whether anything was thrown. Peoples Gazette and Naija News said stones were thrown; the Presidency pushed back. Tinubu's media aide Bayo Onanuga called the claim 'not true', and presidential aide O'tega Ogra released footage of the president being cheered. A Newswatch fact-check found no independently verified evidence that Tinubu was stoned. That split is why this post matters: it mixes a documented fact (the chants) with an unverified escalation (the stones) and presents both as breaking news.

Why did it feel plausible? Because the anger was visible in multiple clips, and eyewitnesses quoted by Premium Times and Leadership tied it to security restrictions that kept worshippers from entering or leaving the mosque during the presidential visit. A crowd that has been held back and is chanting against a president is exactly the setting where a stoning rumour can take hold. The video gives you the atmosphere without giving you the stones.

Kernel of truth

Tinubu's convoy did leave the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque on 13 November 2026 amid hostile chanting from worshippers, partly over security restrictions. The stoning is the unverified add-on.

Timeline

  1. November 13, 2026

    Tinubu arrives at the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, Abuja, for Jumu'ah prayers at about 1:49 p.m. 3Leadership Newspapers

  2. November 13, 2026

    As the convoy departs, worshippers chant 'Ba ma yi, ba ma so' and 'Tinubu Must Go'; eyewitnesses cite security restrictions on the mosque. 6Premium Times

  3. November 13, 2026

    Peoples Gazette and Naija News report stones thrown at the convoy; the account originalproflle posts video on X claiming Nigerians stoned Tinubu. 4Peoples Gazette Nigeria

  4. November 13, 2026

    Presidential aide O'tega Ogra disputes the stoning claim and shares footage of Tinubu being cheered. 1TheCable

  5. November 13, 2026

    Newswatch publishes a fact-check finding no verified evidence that Tinubu was stoned. 2Newswatch (Nigeria)

How it was framed

Misleading contentFalse context

The clip is genuine footage of a real presidential departure, but the caption uses it to assert a stoning that the footage does not show and that the Presidency and a fact-check dispute. Real elements are arranged to point readers toward a stronger conclusion than the evidence supports.

  • Emotional language. 'Jungle don ripe' — a loaded phrase framing the event as a collapse of order.
  • “Visual proof”. The post offers the handheld clip as if it were the proof of the stoning, when the sampled frames show no projectiles.
  • Missing context. The caption does not mention that the stoning is disputed, that the Presidency denies it, or that the crowd is behind a metal barrier.
  • Urgency. 'BREAKING:' is placed at the start of the caption to push the reader to share before checking.

Posted on X by the account originalproflle (display handle MaziTundeEdnutfan). The post cites no source for the footage or the stoning claim and carries no outlet attribution.

Bias

NoneSlightModerateStrong

Leans anti-Tinubu / opposition-aligned. The caption uses partisan pidgin slang ('Jungle don ripe'), states the unverified stoning as a 'BREAKING' fact, and frames a contested, partly security-frustration-driven mosque incident as nationwide rejection of the president.

Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.

How we checked

1 min 2 s
  1. 1

    Ran searches for reporting on the alleged stoning at the Area 1 Central Mosque in Abuja, including the 'Ba Ma Yi' chant.

  2. 2

    Ran a search for existing fact-checks of the convoy-stoning video.

  3. 3

    Reviewed independent Nigerian coverage from Premium Times, Leadership, TheCable, Peoples Gazette and Naija News, plus the Newswatch fact-check.

  4. 4

    Reviewed sampled keyframes of the video by eye for the motorcade layout, barriers and any visible projectiles.

  5. 5

    Ran the clip through our AI-generation and deepfake detector.

  6. 6

    Compared the footage against the independently reported details of the departure.

✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked

Why 72% confidence

Moderate

We are confident the hostile chanting happened and that the footage is genuine, which is why the TRUE elements carry HIGH confidence. We are at MODERATE on the central stoning claim because the reporting genuinely splits: some outlets assert stones, the Presidency denies it, and a fact-check found no verified evidence. The footage does not settle it either way, so we rate the caption MISLEADING rather than FALSE.

Limits. We could not establish who first uploaded this specific clip or the exact second it captures. We did not review every video from the scene, so we cannot rule out that stones were thrown at some other point during the departure.

What we don’t know

  • Whether any object was thrown at the convoy at any point during the departure, beyond what the disputed reports say.
  • Who filmed this specific clip and where it first appeared online.
  • Whether the crowd's anger was mainly about the security restrictions, as some eyewitnesses suggested, or about broader political grievances.
  • Why the transcript of this clip captures 'God bless!' rather than the chants reported by other outlets.

Spot it yourself

Spot the fake

Looks suspicious, isn’t proof

  • The 'BREAKING:' prefix and the celebratory emoji are a style choice, not evidence either way. Plenty of accurate breaking-news posts use the same format.
  • The account's partisan-sounding handle and display name tell you about the poster's leanings, not about whether this particular clip is real.
  • The video is shaky handheld phone footage. Low production quality is normal for eyewitness material and proves nothing on its own.
  • The chant 'Ba Ma Yi' is genuinely reported, so hearing that phrase does not confirm the stoning part of the caption.

The actual evidence

  • The sampled frames of the video show the crowd behind a metal barrier with no stones or projectiles visible; the transcript captures 'God bless!', not chanting.
  • Tinubu's media aide Bayo Onanuga called the stoning claim 'not true', and another presidential aide released counter-footage of the president being cheered.
  • Newswatch's fact-check found no independently verified evidence that Tinubu was stoned after the prayers.
  • The outlets reporting stones (Peoples Gazette, Naija News) rely on the same circulating clip and eyewitness accounts, so they are not independent of one another.
  1. 1

    Look for the specific act the caption claims

    Pause the clip and scan for stones, projectiles or people throwing. If the claim is 'stoned', the footage should show something being thrown. Here it does not.

  2. 2

    Check whether the biggest outlets are reporting the strongest version

    If a president were stoned, every major Nigerian outlet would carry it. When only one or two outlets report the escalation and others describe only chanting, treat the escalation as unproven.

  3. 3

    Look for official pushback

    Search the president's aides and the Presidency's accounts for a denial. Here one aide called the claim 'not true' and another posted counter-footage, which is a signal that the escalation is contested.

  4. 4

    Count independent sources, not headlines

    Several outlets repeating one clip is still one source. Ask whether each report has its own footage or its own eyewitnesses, or whether they are all describing the same post.

Takeaway

A real event can carry a false escalation. When a caption adds a dramatic action to genuine footage, check whether that action is visible in the clip and whether the officials involved confirm it — the atmosphere being real does not make the accusation real.

Questions people ask

Did Nigerians stone Tinubu's convoy in Abuja?+

It is unverified. Some outlets, including Peoples Gazette and Naija News, reported stones thrown as Tinubu's convoy left the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque on 13 November 2026. But Tinubu's media aide Bayo Onanuga called the claim 'not true', another aide released footage of the president being cheered, and a Newswatch fact-check found no verified evidence of stoning.

What does 'Ba ma yi' mean?+

'Ba ma yi, ba ma so' is a Yoruba phrase meaning roughly 'we don't want you, we don't want it'. Worshippers were reported chanting it, along with 'Tinubu Must Go', as the presidential convoy left the mosque after Friday prayers.

Is the video AI-generated?+

No. Our detector scored it at about 0.04 for AI generation and near zero for deepfake, and the scene matches independent reporting of the same motorcade. The footage appears to be genuine. The problem is the caption's claim that the crowd is stoning the convoy, which the clip does not show.

Why did the crowd react angrily at the mosque?+

Eyewitnesses quoted by Premium Times and Leadership attributed the anger partly to security restrictions that kept worshippers from entering or leaving the mosque during the presidential visit. The chants were widely reported even by outlets that disputed the stoning.

What does MISLEADING mean here?+

It means the post mixes real elements with an unsupported conclusion. The location, the date, the chanting and the footage are genuine. The assertion that the crowd is stoning the convoy is unverified, denied by the Presidency and not visible in the clip, so the overall framing misleads even though parts of it are true.

Go deeper

Misleading content
Genuine information used or framed in a way that points readers toward a false or exaggerated conclusion.
Deepfake
Video or audio created or altered with AI to make someone appear to say or do something they did not.
Jumu'ah
The Friday midday congregational prayer in Islam, which draws large crowds to mosques.
Source independence
The principle that two reports count as separate evidence only if they did not both get their information from the same origin.

People also search for

Tinubu convoy stoned Abuja mosque videoNigerians stone Tinubu Area 1 Central MosqueBa Ma Yi Tinubu convoy AbujaJungle don ripe Tinubu mosque videoTinubu Shagari mosque Friday prayers booed
For educators+
Misleading content: real events framed to support a stronger claim than the evidence allows.Source independence: multiple outlets repeating one clip are not multiple sources.Visual verification: checking whether the specific action a caption claims is actually visible in the footage.
  • The chanting is confirmed by several outlets, but the stoning is disputed. How should a reader weigh a post that is partly true and partly unverified?
  • If you were an editor, what would you need to see before publishing that stones were thrown at a president's convoy?
  • Why might official denials and counter-footage not settle a dispute like this on their own?

About this check

Platform
X
Posted by
@originalproflle
Posted
November 13, 2026
Age when checked
Under 24 hours old when checked
Where it spread
Nigeria
Audience
Local audience
Language
EN
Status
● Post is live
Verified
November 14, 2026, 03:21 UTC
Published
November 14, 2026, 03:21 UTC

Reach. @originalproflle post 8,411 likes, @Sarki_sultan 3,391, @TrendingEx 1,056 (X syndication, 14 Nov). Covered by Premium Times, ICIR, Leadership, The Gazette; presidential aide O'tega Ogra posted counter-video calling chanters 'alleged paid thugs'.

This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.

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