An X user posted a picture of a young man in cuffs in the middle of two police officers suggesting that he is the culprit that cleared the debt of MTN customers in November 2023.
The caption reads, “The IT student who allegedly cleared all MTN users’ debt has reportedly been arrested.”
In the comment section, some users commended him and advised MTN to employ him, saying not everything is a crime.
Some pointed out that he should be made president as he had the interest of Nigerians at heart while others suggested that he was better than many leaders in the country.
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The post had gathered an impression of over 3 million, over 20,000 likes and almost 3000 comments.
Recall in November, many MTN users who borrowed airtime noticed that their debts had been cleared by the company.
Verification
In a bid to verify the authenticity of the picture, fact-checkers at Daily Trust subjected the image to a Google Reverse Image search and the results revealed that the same picture had been posted in the past by several platforms.
However, the first time the image surfaced was in 2014 when the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) revealed that a fugitive had fled Nigeria from the United Kingdom over an alleged murder case.
Jeffery Ozuka Okafor was arrested by the Nigeria Police in September 2014 after fleeing the United Kingdom over the murder allegations of Carl Beatson Asiedu in August 2009 in London.
Conclusion
Based on verifiable information, Daily Trust can confirm that the image in circulation showing an intern who purportedly cleared the debts of MTN users in November is false and misleading.
This fact check was produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)
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