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FACTCHECK: Did Pastor Chris recently prophesy about the 2027 election? What we found

An article circulating online claims that Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Christ Embassy, recently delivered a prophecy concerning three major contenders in Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.

An article circulating online claims that Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Christ Embassy, recently delivered a prophecy concerning three major contenders in Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.

The claim appeared in an article headlined, “2027: Pastor Chris Drops Shocking Prophecy on Three Major Presidential Candidates [VIDEO]”. It was encountered through the Phoenix Browser news feed and attributed to PoliticsNigeria.

The publication is accompanied by a video clip in which the cleric describes three candidates, using phrases such as “the jackal” and “you will have no country,” and a third candidate whose name appears in the Bible.

As discussions around the 2027 elections gather momentum, the video has attracted renewed attention online.

Mr Oyakhilome recently delivered a prophecy concerning three major presidential candidates ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.

To verify the claim, PREMIUM TIMES reviewed the video used in the article and traced its original publication.

Findings show that the footage is not recent. Rather, it predates Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election and was publicly available before Nigerians voted on 25 February 2023.

A review of an archived YouTube broadcast titled “What Pastor Chris Said about the major candidates of the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Election” shows that the video was published on 20 February 2023, five days before the presidential election.

The archived video, published by Mediablast Network on YouTube, bears the description: “2023 Presidential election, watch what Pastor Chris Said.” It is tagged with references to the 2023 Nigerian election and carries a publication date of 20 February 2023.

The broadcast contains the same remarks currently being presented as a purported prophecy for the 2027 election cycle.

In the archived recording, the cleric begins discussing the candidates at approximately 24 seconds. At about 1 minute 44 seconds, he says, “The jackal is cut off,” then explains the term. At approximately 2 minutes 41 seconds, he moves to the second candidate, while at about 3 minutes 9 seconds, he discusses a third candidate whom he describes as being “afraid of winning” and asks the congregation to pray for him. At roughly 4 minutes 57 seconds, he provides an additional clue that the candidate’s name is in the Bible.

These timestamps correspond to the remarks reproduced in the article currently circulating online.

The sermon was delivered during the period leading up to the 2023 presidential election, which featured Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) among the leading candidates.

Although Mr Oyakhilome did not explicitly identify any candidate in the portion of the sermon reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, many viewers and commentators at the time publicly debated and interpreted the descriptions as references to prominent contenders in the 2023 presidential race.

Notably, the article presenting the video as a 2027 prophecy does not indicate that the footage was originally published before the 2023 election. Instead, the headline and accompanying introduction state that Mr Oyakhilome “has shared a revelation concerning Nigeria’s 2027 general elections,” suggesting that the remarks are recent.

PREMIUM TIMES found no evidence that the sermon was recently delivered or that the remarks specifically referred to the 2027 election.

Instead, available evidence shows that the video originated during the 2023 election season and is now being circulated in a different political context.

Old videos, speeches, and statements are frequently recycled without their original context, creating the impression that they relate to current or upcoming events.

As conversations around the 2027 elections grow, the recycling of historical political content can mislead audiences into believing that past remarks are recent interventions in ongoing debates.

VERDICT
MISLEADING

The video is genuine, but it is not a recent prophecy about Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election. Evidence shows that it was published on 20 February 2023, before the 25 February 2023 presidential election, and is being circulated without its original context.

More details here…