Two showing stashed dollars has been circulating on X with the claim that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC raided and recovered $800 Million, ₦700 Billion Cash, and ₦1 Trillion Worth of Drugs from Mohammed Bello El-Rufai’s house in Kaduna State.
Bello, a Nigerian lawmaker serving at Green chamber representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency in the 10th National Assembly, is the son of Nasiru El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State.
Earlier today, an X user, @SabanaNkiru with 12,400 followers posted two images showing stacks of cash with the caption; “Breaking News: EFCC Discovers $800 Million, ₦700 Billion Cash, and ₦1 Trillion Worth of Drugs at Nasir El-Rufai Son’s House in Kaduna.”
“The discovery was made after the EFCC conducted a surprise raid on the residence of the son of a former governor, Nasir El-Rufai, without prior notification. During the operation, a violent confrontation erupted between EFCC police personnel and the private security team guarding the property.”
“The shootout tragically resulted in the deaths of at least two EFCC officers. This incident underscores the high-stakes nature of the investigation and the resistance faced by the authorities in their efforts to uncover and seize the alleged illicit assets.Olusegun Miracle Abiola”.
The now deleted post already had over 26,800 views, 133 replies, 63 quotes, 220 likes and 43 bookmarks as of the time this report was published. Considering the claim made against a serving lawmaker in the national Assembly with ties to a former governor, NV-A went on to verify the authenticity of the story.
VERIFICATION
Findings by NV-A show that the images have been online since April 20, 2017. Subjecting the two images to Google Reverse Image Search revealed similar images have been online as far back as 7 years ago.
On November 16, 2022, a Facebook user, The Gist Central posted an image similar to the first image shared by @SabanaNkiru with the caption: “BREAKING :EFCC Recovered Over $6million From Bureau De Change Operators Amid Forex Deficiency. #thegistcentral.”
Other exact image matches led our researcher to a CNN report published on April 20, 2017 which said that EFCC found $43 million cash in a Lagos apartment with the two images appearing in the news article. In a featured article published by Vanguardon April 19, 2017, a similar image was also featured in the report.
Further checks revealed that the two images were part of the images posted by the EFCC on its Facebook page on April 12, 2017 to announce the bust which was famously referred to as #Ikoyigate on social media and in several news articles. Bello El-Rufai has also debunked the claim on his X handle, describing it as baseless.
Meanwhile, the EFCC has also released a statement on its Facebook page stating that the news on the raid of Elrufai’s house is a false narrative and the public should ignore it.
CONCLUSION
The images posted to claim that the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC raided Bello El-Rufai’s house and recovered stacks of dollars and drugs from his house is MISLEADING as findings show that the images have been online since 2017 and are related to an incident where the anti-corruption agency found millions of dollars in a Lagos apartment.
