A picture surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) and was also shared on Facebook with a claim that Nigerian politicians looted and hid money underground in different currencies.
Interestingly, different X users have shared the same picture with different captions.
One of the captions reads, “Can you imagine the extent that politicians can go just to steal from people and conceal their loots? Some even store physical cash underground and overhead tanks while his people are dying daily of hunger, starvation and diseases.”
Another user claimed it was discovered from the former governor of Zamfara and the caption reads “discovered and seized from ex-gov of Zamfara state, your current Minister of State for Defence.”
Verification
To verify the authenticity of the claims and the images, fact checkers at Daily Trust carried out a manual search and discovered the same picture had been circulating on Facebook and X with different claims.
Further investigation using Google Reverse Image search revealed that the picture first surfaced online in November 2023.
It was published on different blogs in Afghanistan and was found on Reddit.
However, the captions did not match the ones on X and Facebook. The caption reads “The Taliban in Afghanistan found a treasure during construction; they dug up rows of luxury cars buried underground. Although several years have passed, is it still possible to dig out these luxury cars?
“Many of these vehicles are armoured off-road vehicles that were supposedly used by senior Afghan government officials and foreign officials.”
Verdict: False
Conclusion
Based on verifiable information, fact checkers at Daily Trust can confirm the image used to suggest that Nigerian politicians hid money underground and in overhead tanks is false and misleading. The picture surfaced from Afghanistan.
This fact-check was produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)
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