Adeyemi Okediran
A broadcast picture went viral on social media claiming that Obi Cubana took a selfie with EFCC officers as they released him. Multiple social media handles had shared the image with the inscription that he took a selfie with the staff.
CLAIM
N-VA extracted the claim, “Obi Cubana Poses With EFCC Officers,” and went on to fact-check and verify its authenticity.
POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE CLAIM
Obinna Iyiegbu aka Obi Cabana is a Nigerian businessman and entrepreneur whose name has gone viral since the burial ceremony of his mother in July 2021. On November 1st, the news went viral that Iyiegbu was invited for questioning by EFCC which last for over 72 hours.
VERIFICATION
According to The Guardian, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested popular socialite and businessman, Obinna Iyiegbu, also known as Obi Cubana, over allegations of money laundering and tax fraud on Monday, November 1, 2021.
In a news story published by The Guardian, it was disclosed that he was released on Thursday evening after undergoing intense interrogation by operatives of the commission for 72 hours.
In a bid to test the authentication of the image, the researcher run a reverse image search on TinEye. It was discovered that TinEye searched over 50.2 billion images it couldn’t find any matches for the search image.
The researcher also took to Google reverse image, but could not find anything similar to the image.
Following the viral image and the accompanying claim, on November 5th, 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has debunked the image as false on their verified Instagram account saying the picture was taken on the 7th October 2021 during a book launch of Colonel Chukwu Obasi at Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja in which Obi Cubana attended as a guest.
The statement read thus, “The attention of EFCC has been drawn to fake news trending on social media with the caption, “EFCC Crew poses for a quick photograph with billionaire socialite and businessman Obi Cubana”.
“The caption is as fake as any fake news can ever be because, at no time during his ongoing investigation, the period in custody or release did Obi Cubana pose for photographs with EFCC staff.
Deji Adesogan, A.K.A. Uncle Deji, a popular security analyst, using his social media handle, has debunked the fake news, saying,
“This post is deliberately misleading, this picture was taken 7th October 2021 during a book launch of Colonel Chukwu Obasi at Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja in which Obi Cubana attended as a guest”.
“Members of the public are therefore advised to ignore the fake news and misleading imputation which has been traced to the social media account of Sabi Radio (sabiradio), which first went to town with the fake news at 1.06 pm on 5 November 2021. Sabiradio’s watermark is telltale on the photograph.”
“The Commission shall not hesitate to take urgent necessary steps to address this and other fake news seeking to drag EFCC’s hard-won name and professional reputation in the mud.”
CONCLUSION
The claim that Obi Cubana took a photograph with EFCC officers after he was released from the agency’s custody is MISLEADING.
