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Claim
@U_Rochas, an X user, has claimed that the Imo State House of Assembly Speaker recently commissioned a betting shop for his constituents.
@U_Rochas shared an image of the alleged Speaker with a caption that reads, “The Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly is commissioning a betting shop as part of his constituency project.
However, the X user didn’t state the name of the Speaker and his constituency.
The post has garnered over 66k views and more than 297 reposts, according to X analytics.
Many people who commented on that post lambasted the Speaker for choosing to build a betting shop rather than engaging in meaningful projects that will be beneficial to his constituents.
Verification
First, results from Google Image Reverse Search indicated that the man in the photo was, Hon Kennedy Ibe, a former lawmaker and ex-Imo Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly.
Further checks by FACTWATCH Nigeria showed that Mr Ibe the former State constituency lawmaker allegedly commissioned a Bet9ja shop in his community in January 2019.
There’s no strong evidence that Kennedy Ibe was commissioning a betting shop in that photo.
According to a report by Blueprint online in 2019, Mr. Ibe was a lawmaker representing Obowo Local Government Area in the Imo State Assembly when he allegedly commissioned the betting shop as a constituency project.
The Blueprint online report noted that the former lawmaker’s action sparked outrage during the Rochas Okorocha administration.
Other online blogs published the story here and here.
However, Ibe, who represented the Obowo State constituency was elected Imo Assembly speaker in November 2021, after Paul Emezim was sacked. But in September 2022, he was removed as Imo Assembly Speaker and replaced with Emeka Nduka.
The current Imo State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Chike Olemgbe, resumed office in 2023.
Verdict
This claim is MISLEADING.
The man in the photo, Hon. Kennedy Ibe, was a State constituency lawmaker when he allegedly commissioned the betting shop in 2019; he emerged as the Imo Assembly Speaker in 2021 and was removed in 2022. Therefore he’s not the current Imo Assembly Speaker.
Credit: FactWatch Nigeria
