Alake’s claim on Tinubu’s ‘balablu’ gaffe false

A Fact Check report by the Centre for Democracy and Development has countered the claim by the Director of Strategic Communication of the All Progressives Congress, Dele Alake, that the viral “Balablu” video attributed to the presidential candidate of the party, Bola Tinubu, was doctored.

The report countered Alake with facts that proved that Tinubu indeed made the remark in Owerri, the Imo State capital while speaking with a group of businessmen on his plans to promote the country’s economy for businesses to thrive.

The CDD confirmed that their platform was alerted to do the Fact Check after Alake posted a video on Twitter with the caption “Lies Alert”.

“Alake says that ‘Bala Blu Bulaba’ was doctored. The video has been seen by over 70,000 people in 24 hours.”

The CDD noted that its Election War Room checked Television Continental, a media house where Tinubu is a promoter and financial investor, and found that its live stream of the event captures the gaffe.

“The 33 minutes and 44 seconds-long video clip of the APC Town Hall meeting with the private sector can be found here on the TVC news YouTube channel,” it added.

The report read that Alake’s claim was false because the actual event took place in Imo State and shortly after the opening remark, about three minutes and 40 seconds into the video, Tinubu made the gaffe.

Alake had appeared on Nigerian Info, 99.3 FM in Abuja to dispel the authenticity of the video on Thursday, February 9, 2023.

While answering questions on his principal, Alake said one of the “famous gaffes” where Tinubu said, “a town hall different from balablu blublu bulaba,” was manipulated.

“No! That again is not true, it was doctored, I am telling you it was doctored because we showed the real original video clip on TVC.”

He added that the real video was “broken into snippets and thrown on social media”.