Post misleadingly claims Nigerian opposition leader supports online fraudsters

A media adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu recently claimed that a video he shared on social media showed opposition leader Peter Obi “making a case” for online scammers. The claim is misleading: while the original footage showed Obi comparing the activities of internet swindlers to the alleged embezzlement of public funds by the country’s leaders, he outrightly condemned online fraud.

“Peter Obi makes case for Yahoo Yahoo boys. Incredible he could use one wrong to justify another (sic),” reads the caption of the video shared on X by Bayo Onanuga, a media adviser to the Nigerian president.

“Yahoo” is Nigerian slang for internet fraud.

The post, published on February 29, 2024, has been shared more than 850 times, with many in the comment section criticising the Labour Party’s Obi for his perceived support of internet fraud.

In the 43-second clip, Obi is heard saying that the authorities were “chasing young boys with computers and say they are doing yahoo-yahoo when people are stealing billions, which we have as a government”.

The same short clip was posted here, here and here.

Obi ran against Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nigeria’s presidential election in February 2023.

Nigerian internet fraud

More than 2,800 people were convicted of cybercrime in 2022, according to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (archived here). The agency is yet to publish the figures for 2023.

Several high-profile cyber-fraud cases have also been linked to Nigerians outside the country. For instance, Nigerian Instagram influencer Ramon Olorun Abbas was handed an 11-year jail term in the United States in 2022 after being found guilty of conspiring “to launder tens of millions of dollars through a series of online scams” (archived here).

Abidemi Rufai, a politician and aide to the Ogun state governor in southwest Nigeria, was also convicted in the US for a similar crime in 2022 (archived here). He was sacked after his crime came to light.

However, the claim that the video showed Obi publicly backing internet fraudsters is misleading.

Full video

Using the InVID-WeVerify video verification tool, AFP Fact Check found the original, longer version of the footage.

The video was published on YouTube by Nigerian broadcaster Channels Television on February 26, 2024 (archived here).

In the clip, Obi commented on the government’s recent clampdown on bureaux de change operators (BDCs), calling the move ill-advised.

The Nigerian government is in a stand-off with foreign exchange players, including BDCs and the cryptocurrency platform Binance, as it battles a currency crisis that has eroded the value of the naira (archived here).

The crackdown on Binance took a drastic turn when Nigeria detained two of its executives (archived here).

Three minutes and 3o seconds into the original footage, AFP Fact Check found the full extract used in the misleading posts (archived here).

“Today, we spend more time chasing young boys with computers saying they are doing Yahoo Yahoo when people are stealing the billions, which we have as a government,” Obi said.

At 04’21”, he stated that he was not excusing any crime but added that the priority should be holding government officials accountable for stealing public funds (archived here).

“I am not encouraging anybody to steal, but we’ll deal with those stealing our common resources first,” he said.

One of the accounts sharing the misleading clip in Nigeria is called “George Udom”. It has a history of posting disinformation and pro-government content to its more than 222,000 followers. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked false claims shared by this account including here, here and here.