Yunusa Umar
On September 1, 2024, a video showing cars including trucks trapped in a ravaging-flood with a claim that the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki’s convoy was trapped in the flood went viral.
In the one minute eleven seconds footage, the voice behind the camera said, “See am e don red ohh. Na governemnt parastatal be this ohh. Make una see am. E don red. Na convoy be this. E don red for everybody. Everybody go collect oh. Na im dey inside there. Na governor na im dey inside water so. E don stop na him motor be this. Governor of Edo State. E don red.”
“See their convoy. Na Edo State be this. Since we tell dem say make dem come dey do am, dem no gree do am, na so so roadblock dem dey do. See as everybody don collect. Dey say dem do us. Dem no know say who throw stone for market, na im mama e go meet. Make una see am, governor dey this motor. See am. E hide him dey shame. E no fit come outside. Na so, everybody dey collect from Nigeria both the poor and the rich.”
A verified X page, @NigeriaStories posted the same clip with a caption: “Video: Edo state governor trapped in traffic and flood in Edo state”.
The clip has continued to spread rapidly on social media, on Nigeria Stories’ X page, it has about 860,000 views, 640 replies, over 4, 700 reposts and quotes, 10000+ likes and 1,500 bookmarks. On another X user’s page, @dmightyangel, it has generated over 12,500 views with over 270 replies, likes, reposts and quotes, and 26 bookmarks.
Several X users have shared their commentaries under the post on @NigeriaStories, with @SuperSlimEli commenting that, “This is an old video but regardless, it’s a big shame that this governors don’t care at all”. Another X user, @Irunnia reply onthe post reads, “Is this not a shameful thing? A whole governor. Let them suffer in the mess they made”.
@PureStanley1 reacted to the post saying, “ Good for him, he finally had a taste of the bad Governance he wrought upon the pple of Edo State. The pple on standby and the camera man had one job to do, but they failed at it. They should have picked stone, and taught him the life lesson he would never forget. Stone him and his entourage”. Then, @idaralite commented too saying, “😸😋 Haaa! Useless embezzlers without sense of how to develop his state. Hope he has to get out and walk. The millions he has stolen will comfort him from this stress afterwards am sure”.
Due to the heated conversation around bad governance in Nigeria and the fact that there is an upcoming gubernatorial election in Edo state later this month, NV-A went on to fact-check the viral video which has been put forward as the scorecard for the outgoing governor, Godwin Obaseki.
VERIFICATION
When NV-A subjected keyframes of the screenshots of the footage to Google Lens, the results show that the clip has been online since 2023.
A report published by Blueprint Newspaper on July 23, 2023 which used a keyframe from the viral video as feature image reported that Obaseki’s convoy was trapped in a flood in Edo’s capital, Benin.
“The Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, is seen in a video that had since gone viral, trapped in flood along one of the major roads in the state capital, Benin”, Blueprint reported.
Another media outlet, Neptune Prime corroborated the report with the news headline, “Flooded bad road in Edo traps Governor Obaseki’s convoy for hours (Video).”
The report reads in part: “The convoy of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, was trapped at the RCC junction on Sapele road, Benin, Edo State after heavy rain flooded the bad road and made it impassable.”
A trending video of the incident that occurred on Friday showed how the Governor’s exotic cars got stucked in the muddy road”, Neptune Prime’s report read.
The Punch Newspaper confirmed the incident stating that Obaseki’s convoy was stranded at the RCC junction on Sapele Road, Benin, Edo State after heavy rain made the road flooded and unpassable.
Governor Obaaseki also released a statement on July 23, 2023 confirming he was stranded on Sapele road due to the flooding. He said further that the state government cannot intervene in fixing the Benin-Auchi and Benin-Sapele roads because the Federal Government has awarded contracts for its repair.
CONCLUSION
The claim that Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki was trapped in a flood in Benin is TRUE but the viral clip is not recent, it is footage of the incident which happened in July 2023.
