Posts mislead with claims of Nigeria's southeast being excluded from development projects
'Student Loan excluded South East, Jamb failed South East, Sea port, none in South East, NNPC/FIRS/Customs none from South East, Int'l Airport none in South East, Railway none in South East, Military checkpoints, everywhere in South East,' reads a post shared more than 900 times on Facebook.
'When they cry, you call them IPOB,' concludes the post, published on May 19, 2025.
The post was shared by a page belonging to Nigerian singer Charles Oputa, popularly known as 'Charly Boy', to his 180,000 followers.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked claims by Charly Boy (here, here, here and here).
Image
Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on June 16, 2025
Nigeria's southeast comprises the states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.
A previous unilateral declaration of independence in the region and the creation of the republic of Biafra in 1967 led to a 30-month civil war that claimed more than one million lives, most of them Igbos, from the effects of conflict, starvation and disease.
In 2015, renewed protests for Biafran independence re-emerged after decades, with Nnamdi Kanu as a leading figure. He was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria on June 27, 2021. He faces charges related to treason (archived here).
His trial began afresh on March 21, 2025, after the former judge recused herself (archived here).
However, the posts claim that the region has been excluded from infrastructural and development projects is misleading.
Loan programme
The claim that the southeast region was excluded from a national student loan programme is false.
The programme was introduced by the Bola Tinubu administration in May 2024 to encourage more people to pursue higher education (archived here). As of May 2025, the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) said it had received over a million loan applications for tuition and upkeep from about 629,000 students (archived here).
Data published by the fund showed that a little more than 40,000 students from the southeast had submitted over 57,000 loan applications.
Image
Screenshot of the loan disbursement dashboard taken on June 18, 2025
JAMB failure
The claim about JAMB failure refers to the entry examination taken by teenagers who want to pursue tertiary education. The exam, Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), is coordinated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
JAMB reported mass failure in the 2025 edition of the examination, where 78% of the candidates scored less than 200 out of the maximum 400 points (archived here).
The failure was later attributed to a technical glitch that affected students in the Lagos and southeast zones. About 206,000 students were affected in Lagos and 173,387 students were affected in the southeast zone (archived here). So this claim is true, though not limited to the southeast.
Seaport
The claim that there is no seaport in the southeast region of Nigeria is correct.
Nigeria currently has seven seaports, which are all located in the southwest and south-south regions due to their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean (archived here). The southeast region, meanwhile, has rivers that run into the ocean but no coastal land.
However, the Onitsha River Port – while not a seaport – is located in Anambra state in southeast Nigeria. The river port has reported receiving barges and containers in recent years (archived here and here). There is also an inland dry port under construction in Aba, Abia state (archived here).
Inclusion in agencies
The claim that there is no one from the southeast region in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Customs Service is misleading.
Although the heads of these agencies are not from the southeast, there are other people from the southeast in top positions at these agencies, including the vice president of business services at the NNPCL (archived here).
The FIRS Act also mandates that the management team must have a representative from each geopolitical zone, one of which is the southeast (archived here). This rule also applies to the Nigeria Customs Service (archived here).
International airport
The claim about the absence of an international airport in the southeast is false. The Akanu Ibiam International Airport is located in Enugu (archived here). However, the airports in Lagos and Abuja enjoy more passenger traffic (archived here).
Railways
The claim that there are no rail lines in the southeast region is false. In November 2024, the government completed and handed over the Port Harcourt-Aba Railway to the Nigeria Railway Corporation to start operations (archived here).
In December 2024, the NRC said the trains transport between 500 and 900 passengers per trip (archived here).
Military checkpoints
The claim that military checkpoints are common in the southeast is true. Due to insecurity (archived here), Mohammed Abubakar, the minister of defence, last year pledged to ramp up security measures in the region with the stated aim of ensuring stability for businesses (archived here).
Military checkpoints are also common in the northern region due to efforts to flush out armed groups like Boko Haram and conflicts between Fulani herders and farmers that have resulted in significant casualties (archived here).
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AFP
4 hours ago
- AFP
Posts mislead with claims of Nigeria's southeast being excluded from development projects
'Student Loan excluded South East, Jamb failed South East, Sea port, none in South East, NNPC/FIRS/Customs none from South East, Int'l Airport none in South East, Railway none in South East, Military checkpoints, everywhere in South East,' reads a post shared more than 900 times on Facebook. 'When they cry, you call them IPOB,' concludes the post, published on May 19, 2025. The post was shared by a page belonging to Nigerian singer Charles Oputa, popularly known as 'Charly Boy', to his 180,000 followers. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked claims by Charly Boy (here, here, here and here). Image Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on June 16, 2025 Nigeria's southeast comprises the states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. A previous unilateral declaration of independence in the region and the creation of the republic of Biafra in 1967 led to a 30-month civil war that claimed more than one million lives, most of them Igbos, from the effects of conflict, starvation and disease. In 2015, renewed protests for Biafran independence re-emerged after decades, with Nnamdi Kanu as a leading figure. He was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria on June 27, 2021. He faces charges related to treason (archived here). His trial began afresh on March 21, 2025, after the former judge recused herself (archived here). However, the posts claim that the region has been excluded from infrastructural and development projects is misleading. Loan programme The claim that the southeast region was excluded from a national student loan programme is false. The programme was introduced by the Bola Tinubu administration in May 2024 to encourage more people to pursue higher education (archived here). As of May 2025, the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) said it had received over a million loan applications for tuition and upkeep from about 629,000 students (archived here). Data published by the fund showed that a little more than 40,000 students from the southeast had submitted over 57,000 loan applications. Image Screenshot of the loan disbursement dashboard taken on June 18, 2025 JAMB failure The claim about JAMB failure refers to the entry examination taken by teenagers who want to pursue tertiary education. The exam, Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), is coordinated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). JAMB reported mass failure in the 2025 edition of the examination, where 78% of the candidates scored less than 200 out of the maximum 400 points (archived here). The failure was later attributed to a technical glitch that affected students in the Lagos and southeast zones. About 206,000 students were affected in Lagos and 173,387 students were affected in the southeast zone (archived here). So this claim is true, though not limited to the southeast. Seaport The claim that there is no seaport in the southeast region of Nigeria is correct. Nigeria currently has seven seaports, which are all located in the southwest and south-south regions due to their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean (archived here). The southeast region, meanwhile, has rivers that run into the ocean but no coastal land. However, the Onitsha River Port – while not a seaport – is located in Anambra state in southeast Nigeria. The river port has reported receiving barges and containers in recent years (archived here and here). There is also an inland dry port under construction in Aba, Abia state (archived here). Inclusion in agencies The claim that there is no one from the southeast region in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Customs Service is misleading. Although the heads of these agencies are not from the southeast, there are other people from the southeast in top positions at these agencies, including the vice president of business services at the NNPCL (archived here). The FIRS Act also mandates that the management team must have a representative from each geopolitical zone, one of which is the southeast (archived here). This rule also applies to the Nigeria Customs Service (archived here). International airport The claim about the absence of an international airport in the southeast is false. The Akanu Ibiam International Airport is located in Enugu (archived here). However, the airports in Lagos and Abuja enjoy more passenger traffic (archived here). Railways The claim that there are no rail lines in the southeast region is false. In November 2024, the government completed and handed over the Port Harcourt-Aba Railway to the Nigeria Railway Corporation to start operations (archived here). In December 2024, the NRC said the trains transport between 500 and 900 passengers per trip (archived here). Military checkpoints The claim that military checkpoints are common in the southeast is true. Due to insecurity (archived here), Mohammed Abubakar, the minister of defence, last year pledged to ramp up security measures in the region with the stated aim of ensuring stability for businesses (archived here). Military checkpoints are also common in the northern region due to efforts to flush out armed groups like Boko Haram and conflicts between Fulani herders and farmers that have resulted in significant casualties (archived here).
AFP
10 hours ago
- AFP
Video shows Chinese firefighting exercise, not Iranian strike on Israeli power station
"Iran claims that its hypersonic missile directly hit the power plant in the Israeli city of Haifa, destroying the entire power plant," reads the caption of a Facebook video shared on June 18, 2025. The video appears to show fires that trigger several explosions at a power plant. It surfaced after Iran said it fired hypersonic missiles -- which travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept -- at Israel in the latest round of overnight strikes between the arch foes (archived link). An oil refinery in Haifa had also previously been struck by an Iranian missile on June 15 (archived link). Despite international alarm about the conflict potentially spiralling into a region-engulfing war, neither side has backed off from the long-range blitz that began on June 13 when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. The United States joined Israel's war with Tehran on June 22, with President Donald Trump announcing that US air strikes had "totally obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites and warning Washington would go after more targets if Iran did not make a peace deal quickly (archived link). Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on June 20, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The same footage spread in similar Facebook, Threads and X posts. But the video does not show an Iranian attack on a power plant in Haifa. AFP also previously debunked posts that misrepresented the same clip in May 2019 as showing a fire in Singapore. 'Rescue drill' A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a longer version published November 17, 2015 on YouTube (archived link). The title reads: "Massive explosion at Chinese chemical plant". Another reverse image search on Chinese search engine Baidu led to a report published by People's Daily Online in 2016 the footage in fact showed a fire drill held at the Chengdu Public Security Fire Brigade Training Base in November 2015 (archived here and here). It added that the official Weibo account of the Sichuan Fire Services had shared details of the drill (archived link). The simplified Chinese Weibo post reads: "A rescue drill display was held at the Chengdu Public Security Fire Brigade Training Base on the afternoon of November 12 for the eighth meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's emergency rescue department." Structures seen in one of the photos in the Weibo post correspond to those seen in the video. Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video with a red X added by AFP (L) and the photo shared on Weibo Elements from the falsely shared clip also correspond to January 2016 satellite imagery of the training base available on Google Earth (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and satellite imagery on Google Earth, with matching features highlighted by AFP The Sichuan fire brigade published more photos from the drill in a separate article on the same day (archived link). AFP has debunked several other false claims related to the Iran-Israel conflict.
AFP
3 days ago
- AFP
Unrelated image of injured man falsely linked to death of Kenyan killed in police custody
'A photo of Albert Ojwang when he was alive. Has resurfaced at the Central Police Station reception. His shirt was torn, and he was bleeding from the head (sic),' reads an X post published on June 9, 2025, and shared more than 600 times. Show Hide Content warning Show Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 18, 2025 Hide The image shows a man with a bloodied face and a torn shirt standing with his head tilted upwards. Similar claims were published elsewhere on X here and here. Fatal arrest Ojwang, a 31-year-old teacher, was reportedly arrested on June 6, 2025, in Western Kenya, and transported to the central police station in Kenya's capital Nairobi. He was accused of criticising deputy inspector general Eliud Lagat on social media (archived here). He was reported dead two days later, with police initially claiming he died after hitting his head against a cell wall. However, a pathologist's report indicated injuries consistent with assault (archived here). Ojwang's death sparked public outrage, which resulted in protests demanding justice and Lagat's resignation (archived here and here). Lagat has since announced he would 'step aside' from his position amid ongoing investigations. Additionally, two police officers and a technician accused of tampering with CCTV footage at the station have been arrested in connection with Ojwang's death (archived here and here). However, the posts purportedly showing an image of Ojwang at the station before he died are false. Unrelated image AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found the original image published on Facebook by ex-Kakamega county senator Cleophas Malala on June 9, 2025, alongside claims that his driver was assaulted by police (archived here). 'The Kakamega OCPD - a one MR. ROTICH and three other uniformed officers trailed my vehicle and forced my driver to stop,' he wrote. '*Disappointingly, upon confirming I was not on board, they commanded him to drive to an unknown destination. When he refused, they assaulted him so severely using a gun pointer that he was left profusely bleeding (sic).' 'This is unconscionable brutality by those sworn to protect us,' he continued. 'Our nation sinks deeper into lawlessness when officers become perpetrators. We will not be intimidated—we are formally filing a complaint with IPOA (Independent Policing Oversight Authority).' The incident was also reported by local media (archived here and here).
