Are pictures of Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari in London Photoshopped?

Rumours that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is dead are persisting, in spite of the presidency's efforts to dismiss such claims. In one of the latest attempts to dismiss death claims, Buhari's spokesperson, Garba Shehu, reassured Nigerians that the president was "alive and well" and posted on his official Facebook page pictures of Buhari "relaxing" in the UK.

However, some alleged the pictures had been Photoshopped, with people calling on Buhari to personally dismiss the death claims.

Were the pictures Photoshopped?

IBTimes UK was not able to confirm when the pictures shared by Shehu were taken.

However, by using website Fotoforensics – which uses algorithms to detect whether an image has been Photoshopped or not – it appears that the pictures have not been modified.

Furthermore, a search on Tineye – a reverse image search engine that can detect when a certain image first appeared on the web – shows that the pictures first appeared on the internet on 23 January. Shehu shared them on his Facebook page on the evening of 22 January.

The death allegations emerged earlier in January after Buhari, 74, announced he would take a 10-day vacation to relax and undergo a medical check-up in the UK.

Fake versions of news websites Metro UK and the Huffington Post – both domains were registered in Arizona, US, and are owned by the same company – reported respectively that Buhari had died and "was caught committing suicide".

The claims were dismissed by both the president and his spokesperson Femi Adesina, stressing that the leader would resume office on 6 February.

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