A news platform recently reported that American billionaire, Larry Ellison, donated about $1m to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi.
The story has so far generated thousands of reactions on Facebook as well as Twitter.
Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American business magnate and investor, a former chief executive officer of the American computer technology company, Oracle Corporation.
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According to Forbes, Ellison’s net worth is about 96.7 billion USD.
Full Text: The story posted on the news platform’s Facebook page reads: “American billionaire Larry Ellison donates 1m$ to “Peter ObObipresidential campaign, offers to build “Plane Manufacturing Company” in Nigeria if Peter Obi wins.”
Verification
In verifying the claim, our correspondent visited the official Facebook page of the American billionaire to ascertain if he really made the announcement, but there was no recent comment from him to show he donated $1m to Obi’s campaign.
The Twitter handle of the billionaire, @larryellison, was also visited to check his recent tweets. None of his tweets was about the purported donation or a promise to build plane manufacturing company in Nigeria.
In fact, checks by Daily Trust showed that the last time Ellison tweeted was on 06 June 2012.
Also, no major news outlets in Nigeria and the United States reported the donation.
Background
However checks by Daily Trust has shown that Mr. Obi has received some material donations for his presidential campaign.
For instance, Mr. Isaac Fayose, the younger brother to the Former Governor of Ekiti State and PDP chieftain, Ayodele Fayose, pledged to make his hotel in Ibadan, Oyo State, available to facilitate Obi’s presidential campaign.
Fayose stated this through a video posted on his official Instagram account.
According to him, the hotel, which is located at 10 Federal High Court Road, off New Adeoyo Street, off Ring Road, Ibadan, has many rooms, halls, swimming pools and a large space that can take up to a thousand people.
He stated that the hotel would enable Obi’s supporters in Ibadan to have a conducive place to hold their meetings and mobilise people ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
In the same vein, a political pressure group, Like Minds 4A New Nigeria, recently donated a building to Obi at Issele-Azagba, Aniocha North Local Government Area, Delta State to support his political activities.
Conclusion
Based on checks by Daily Trust, there was no announcement or statement by Ellison on donation to Obi’s campaign. As such, the claim cannot be verified to be true.
This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)
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