By Pascal Ibe
CLAIM :
Many X users claimed that a viral photo of a boy drinking water from a very dirty stream is in a Zaria community in northern Nigeria.
VERDICT
This is MISLEADING. The viral photo being shared by X users where a boy is seen drinking from a very dirty stream is not in northern Nigeria.
The photo was first posted online in 2018 in Ghana.
FULL STORY DETAILS
Many X users have continued to share photo of a boy seen drinking from a very dirty stream.
These X users attributed the image to a place in northern Nigeria where there’s no good drinking water.
This came after the photo of borehole built by the 2023 Labour Patty presidential candidate, Peter Obi, went viral.
Some social media users said the borehole with only one tank is a substandard project which was built by the former Anambra State governor.
A former aide to ex president Mohammad Buhari, Bashir Ahmed, on Tuesday flayed Obi for building such project in the northern Nigeria.
Ahmed post on X reads, ”‘Wow. This looks very presidential. Thank you, His Excellency Peter Obi. Your vice president, Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed, who is from Zaria and the whole community must appreciate your gesture. My only curiosity here is about the source of the water.”
Many other X users mocked Obi by comparing the borehole project to schools built years ago by another former governor from the Southeast, Rochas Okorocha.
However reacting to this, some Obi supporters shared a photo of a boy drinking from a very dirty stream.
Posting the image on X, Obi supporters claimed that it was how and where in people in a community in Zairia, Kaduna State, drink from before Peter Obi built the borehole. Obi’s supporters thanked him for providing the borehole project which has served as huge relief to the community in Zairia, Kaduna State.
A verified X user @FS_Yussuf shared a combined photo of a boy drinking from a dirty stream and the borehole built by Obi, he wrote, ”If you don’t like what Peter Obi is doing, tell your government to do it.
Other X users posted photos where people were seen fetching from a dirty stream.
VERIFYING THE CLAIM
First Finding showed that the photo where the boy is seen drinking from a very dirty stream, is not from the Zaria community where Peter Obi built the borehole as claimed by many X users.
A simple Google image search showed that this photo of a boy drinking from a very dirty stream appeared 23 times on Google lens.
In the most contents where this photo appeared, it was mainly used for articles which are written to seek good and clean water system for drinking.
This photo appeared in many African countries’ articles and publications such as Malawi, Ghara, Cameroon, Togo, Benin etc.
According to Google image reverse search, the picture was taken in Ghana. It showed that this photo was first posted on Facebook on November 21, 2018, by a Ghanaian named Ahiabli Genuine Ernest Bishop.
“Mother of the nation, everyone in this village, Akpatoeme, in the municipality of Ketu North, is exposed to health risks because their only source of water is unfit for consumption. Please, we need your help,” he wrote in a message addressed to Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the first lady of Ghana. He also indicated to AFP that he took the picture himself.
Another finding showed that the other image where people are seen fetching from a dirty stream, is a community in Jalingo LGA, Taraba State, Nigeria, according to a YouTube source, Water The Needy Foundation
@wtnf_ng.
CONCLUSION
The claim by many X users, especially Peter Obi supporters that the photo of a boy drinking from a very dirty stream in a Zaria community before Obi built a borehole , is MISLEADING. The picture of a boy drinking from a very dirty stream was posted online in 2018 in Ghana.
The second photo where people were seeing fetching water from a dirty stream is in Jalingo LGA, Taraba State, Nigeria.
