A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) claims that the current Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly commissioned a betting shop as a constituency project.
The post:
An X user, @U_Rochas, shared an image on April 10, 2025, showing a man standing in front of a wooden structure. The post was captioned: “The Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly is commissioning a bet shop as part of his constituency project.”
As of April 16, the post had over 1,800 reposts and more than 2,000 likes.
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CLAIM
Photo shows the House of Assembly speaker in Imo commissioning a sports betting centre as a constituency project.
THE FINDINGS
Investigations by The FactCheckHub reveal that the claim is MISLEADING.
Using Google Reverse Image Search, The FactCheckHub traced the image back to 2019, confirming it had circulated online well before the current assembly session. Earlier versions of the photo can be found here and here.
The man in the image is Chidozie Kennedy Ibe, who represented Obowo State Constituency in Imo. Elected in 2015, Ibe served as Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly from November 2021 to September 2022, after which he resigned but continued as a member of the House. He was re-elected in 2023, beginning his third term.
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However, checks by The FactCheckHub show that Ibe is no longer the speaker of Imo State House of Assembly. The current speaker of the House is Chike Olemgbe, who was sworn in as the Speaker of the 10th Assembly in June 2023. In addition the image was taken before Ibe was speaker.
VERDICT
The claim that the image shows the current speaker of Imo state House of Assembly commissioning a bet shop as a constituency project is MISLEADING, as findings showed that the image has been online since 2019.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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