FactCheck: No evidence to support viral list of Nigerians in Ethiopia prison

Claim

X users shared list of Nigerians in Ethiopia prison.

Verdict

This claim is UNPROVEN.
There’s no concrete evidence that supported this claim

Full Text

Users on X platform, Pst Okezie and Delani recently shared a list and claimed the names on the list are Nigerians currently in Ethiopia prison.

List of Nigerians in ADDIS ABABA PRISON
Why do we have many IBOS on this list?🤦🤦🤦
If your brothers are missing in ADDIS ABABA
CHECK HERE 👇 for their names pic.twitter.com/nRl0Mmb2PA

— Delani (@daylearny) August 29, 2024

The posts by Pst Okezie and Delani on X generated over 355k and more than 800 reposts.

Verification

First thorough search by FactWatch indicated that no credible news organization in Nigeria or Ethiopia published this viral list of Nigerians in Ethiopia prison.

However, in October 2023, in a report by Vanguard, the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa revealed that 99% of Nigerians are currently languishing in Ethiopian prisons for drug trafficking offences.

She said, “Sometime ago, the Nigerian Mission in Ethiopia had a long conversation with the Ethiopian authorities, and they got amnesty for every Nigerian in that prison, so they left. They let them go, and they came back to the country, but guess what? A whole lot of them returned again, committed the same offense—drugs—and then they were arrested.”

The NIDCOM boss, however, dismissed a viral video claiming that 250 Nigerians are languishing in Ethiopian prisons and that they were going to be killed.

When this Fact Checker subjected the list to simple Google image reverse search, results showed that the list was initially posted on Nairaland forum, but has removed or hidden.

When this Fact Checker sent email to the Nigeria embassy in Addis Ababa in order to clarify the list, the embassy promised to get back to FactWatch, but there has not been any response yet as at the time of writing this fact check.

Also, this Fact Checker sent an email to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), but no response till this moment.

A quick check using Google’s tools confirmed that this list might be fake.

Conclusion

There’s no concrete evidence which confirmed that the vital list of Nigerians in Ethiopia prison is authentic.

Credit: FactWatch