Has President Tinubu Started The Deportation Process For 700 U.S Citizens In Nigeria?
On January 25, 2025, a TikTok user @realcelebrityblogger posted a screenshot from their X account claiming that the president of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has started the process of deporting 700 U.S citizens living in Nigeria and the ban on the use of phones produced in the U.S including iPhones.
The post which had three pictures of people sitting on the floor, Trump and Tinubu had the caption, “JUST IN: JUST IN: President Tinubu has begun the process of deporting 700 U.S. citizens residing in Nigeria, following reports of former President Trump deporting hundreds of Nigerians. In addition, Tinubu has announced a ban on the use of U.S.-made phones, including iPhones”
As of the time this report was published, this post had gained about 168,000 likes, over 24,400 comments, about 11,500 bookmarks and over 21,300 shares. This claim has also been on YouTuber, here.
VERIFICATION
Reverse searches on the images shared with this claim brought up results showing that the images of Presidents Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Donald Trump are their official portraits. Whereas, the image with various persons was an original image from an EFCC burst operation of a cryptocurrency syndicate involving people from China, Philippines and other countries. This happened on December 10, 2024 and updated on their website and Instagram page on December 16, 2024.
However, there has been no official source or news platform confirming the deportation of U.S. citizens by the Nigerian government. Although the claim has been circulating on YouTube, here, here, here, and here) TikTok (here, here, and here), Facebook (here, and here) and Instagram (here).
However, in another related news, Nigerian Tribune reported on the federal government’s reaction to the 3,690 Nigerians facing deportation, as confirmed by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report. Reacting to the news, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) assured citizens that the federal government is prepared to receive Nigerians who may be deported. The director of media and corporate affairs at NiDCOM, Abdur-Rahaman Balogun in an interview stated that the federal government has set up a committee to manage the process.
Also, NV-A found no related report from the president or subordinates regarding the ban of phones manufactured in the U.S.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the president of Nigeria has begun a process of deportation for U.S citizens living in Nigeria and has banned the use of phones produced in the U.S is FALSE as no verified news outlets have published any report relating to this and neither has the U.S. or Nigerian government released any statement hinting at deportation of 700 U.S. citizens from Nigeria.
