Juliet Buna
On Friday, February 23, social media became awash with the news that popular Nollywood actress, Toyin Abraham, has recently given birth.
The news went viral on Facebook when a picture began circulating on the platform, with several users claiming that the actress had just been put to bed.
A Facebook page titled “Toyin Abraham fans” shared a photo depicting that Abraham has just given birth to a newborn with the caption,”Nollywood Actress Toyin Abraham 💛💛💛” expressing their admiration for the actress. The photo in question has garnered over eight thousand comments since it was posted on Friday, 23rd of February 2024.
Few hours later, the picture was posted by another Facebook user with the name, Victoria Johnson, who captioned it, “JUST IN: Nollywood Actress Toyin Abraham just put to bed.”
Under the post made by Toyin Abraham fans, many users replied to it with congratulatory messages to Abraham, while some pointed out that the picture appeared to be an old one. The division in the comment section on the authenticity of this picture prompted N-VA to fact-check the circulating image and claim.
VERIFICATION
To verify the image, N-VA utilised Google Reverse Image search. The results from the image search confirmed that the picture being used to suggest that Toyin Abraham had just given birth is an old photo. The said picture first appeared online about five years ago when the actress gave birth to her first child, Ire.
An online news search with the keywords, “toyin abraham gives birth” came up with results on Abraham’s pregnancy and giving birth in August 2019. The search result also included an exclusive interview from December 2022 on Channels Television’s Rubbin minds with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu where she talked about having a miscarriage.
The researcher also did a deep dive into the actress’ page on Instagram where she is most active and found no evidence that Abraham was expecting a child. Taking it further, her husband, Kolawole Ajeyemi’s page on instagram did not reveal any clue about the actress’ family expecting another child.
CONCLUSION
The viral picture portraying Toyin Abraham with a baby and the claim that she just gave birth is MISLEADING as it is an old picture from her first childbirth.
