A video showing Yahaya Bello, a former governor of Kogi State, listening to music inside a luxury car has resurfaced online.
In the footage, Bello was seen in the driver’s seat smiling and posing for the camera while examining the car’s steering.
The video is circulating alongside a claim that the ex-governor is moving freely despite being declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently over corruption allegation.
READ: Yahaya Bello makes FALSE claim about strike in Kogi state-owned tertiary institutions
An X user, @X_Dailly posted the video with a caption that read:
“N85 Billion Fra*ud: Ex Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello Captured Chilling In His Multi Million Naira Mercedes Benz.”
The video has garnered over 1.1 million views with over 4,000 likes, more than 2,000 reposts and over 1,000 comments as of May 19, 2024.
Also, another X user, @LawrenceOkoroPG posted the same footage with another caption thus:
“Only in Nigeria that you see politicians steal aggressively and taunt the masses with the proceeds of their long standing theft.
Yahaya Bello can afford to flaunt the wealth acquired from his series of “Kogi money heist” because he’s sure Nigerians will never rise against them.”
The footage has also gone viral on the social media space in Nigeria.
CLAIM
Video shows the former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, inside a car recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
On April 18, 2024, the EFCC declared Yahaya Bello wanted for offences relating to corruption.
The anti-graft agency had stormed Bello’s Abuja home a day earlier (April 17) but could not arrest him as the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Usman Ododo, arrived at the scene, forcing the security officials to leave the premises. Bello has been on the run since then.
The FactCheckHub subjected the keyframes in the viral footage to a Google reverse image search and the result shows that it has been online since 2020 when he was still the governor of Kogi State.
An earlier version of the video had been shared by Society Now and First Weekly Magazine in their new reports published in the year 2020.
The reports indicated that the governor was criticized by social media users for flaunting a luxury car at a time when civil servants in the state were being poorly paid.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows the former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, inside a car after he was declared wanted by the EFCC is MISLEADING; findings show that the video has been online since 2020.
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 [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
