The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has debunked claims that its personnel eagerly queued up to take a photograph with renowned socialite and businessman, Obi Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana.
The trending photograph has been circulating on the photo-sharing application, Instagram, since Thursday following the release of the nightclub entrepreneur from EFCC custody.
But in a statement issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, on Friday,, the anti-graft agency described the photograph as “fake news”, saying such an event never occurred.
The statement read: “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, wishes to disclaim a trending photograph in the social media purported to have been taken by socialite Obi Cubana in the premises of the Commission, crowded by people described as staff of the EFCC
“The said picture captioned: EFCC Crew poses for quick photograph with billionaire socialite and businessman, Obi Cubana, was not taken in EFCC facility and the people therein are unknown to the Commission.”
In another statement issued on Friday, the EFCC spokesperson quoted Deji Adesogan, a popular social media influencer and self-acclaimed Military and Security Affairs, as saying that “this picture was taken 7th October 2021 during a book launch of Colonel Chukwu Obasi at Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja in which Obi Cubana attended as a guest”.
The EFCC urged members of the public to disregard the information, adding that it has traced the originator of the story “to the social media account of Sabi Radio (sabiradio), which first went to town with the fake news at 1.06 pm on 5 November, 2021. Sabiradio’s watermark is telltale on the photograph”.
