False! Nigeria’s Vice President didn’t comment on Igbo trading activities in Lagos

Claim:  An X user, Simon Ekpa, posted an allegedly leaked audio of Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima commenting on Igbo trading activities in Lagos.

Verdict: False! According to DUBAWA’s findings, the voice in the audio is not that of Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima, and he didn’t make such comments about Igbo traders in Lagos.

Full Text

Simon Ekpa, a self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic in Exile on X,  posted an audio conversation on April 13, 2024, claiming it is the voice of the current vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima. 

The 2-minute 20-second audio posted in video form featured a discussion about Igbo trading activities in Lagos and some other political issues of interest.

 “Just in case you all have forgotten that this is the voice of the current Vice President Boko Haram Shettima,” the post was captioned. 

 As of June 21, 2024, the post had garnered 2,208 reposts, over 49,000 views, 2,476 likes, and 76 quotes.

Meanwhile, after breaking down the image in the audio into keyframes by using Google lens, DUBAWA discovered that the same audio was posted on Facebook on November 6, 2022, by a Facebook user called Africa Facts, who said, “Unbelievable audio leak of what Shettima said about Igbo people. Is this an authentic voice or fake one?”

DUBAWA decided to verify the claim due to its engagement on the X platform and the doubt expressed by the Facebook user.

Who is Simon Ekpa?

Simon Ekpa is an agitator for Biafra Republic. In March 2024, his name was published by the Nigeria Defense Headquarters on the wanted list, alongside 96 others from various parts of the country, for offences relating to terrorism, violent extremism, and secessionist threats against the state.

Based in Finland, Ekpa is reportedly controlling a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group in the southeastern part of Nigeria that has been credited with declaring the Monday Sit-at-Home orders in that region.

Verification 

DUBAWA discovered that the audio originally featured a conversation between two people. We compared the voices of the two speakers and found that none sounded like the original voice of the Nigerian Vice President, having heard and seen him speak at official functions like here and here.

Also, DUBAWA contacted a media aide to Vice President Kashim Shettima— Stanley Nkwocha.

The aide noted that the VP was not involved in any conversation contained in the audio.

“It’s pure propaganda. That’s not VP Shettima’s voice and he doesn’t engage in such conspiracist cheap talks. That is not the VP’s voice. It simply isn’t.  He is too enlightened to delve into such,” he said. 

He added that the voice note was online even during the last 2023 general elections. 

Also, DUBAWA discovered that no significant newspaper reported anything related to the conversation allegedly credited to Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Conclusion

According to DUBAWA’s findings, the voice in the audio is not that of Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima, and he didn’t make the alleged comments about Igbo activities in Lagos.

This report was produced for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KariKari Fellowship in partnership with The Informant247 to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.