FACT-CHECK: Did Yahaya Bello Jump The Fence To Evade EFCC Arrest?

A trending photo on social media shows the former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, allegedly jumping the fence of his residence at Number 9, Benghazi Street, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, to meet the security details of his successor and staunch loyalist, Governor Usman Ododo, to help him evade arrest by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In the past few days, the former Kogi Governor has been declared wanted by security agencies in Nigeria, for failing to honour the invitation or even allowing officials of the anti-graft agency to arrest him for questioning on petitions concerning the mismanagement of N84bn and N300bn, while he served as Governor of the confluence state from 2016 to 2024.

Osun Defender gathered that the former Governor was assisted to evade arrest by Ododo, who visited his residence hours after the EFCC had laid siege on his Abuja home on Wednesday, April 17.

The picture, currently trending on social media, has sparked reactions.

However, checks by Osun Defender revealed that the image claiming Yahaya Bello jumped on the fence to abscond from arrest is not TRUE.

VERIFICATION

Using TinEye, an image verification tool, the original picture shows lawmakers of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), jumping the fence to find their way into the House of Representatives in 2014, during a political tussle between the lawmakers loyal to the opposition tendency and the PDP-led federal government.

According to DAILY POST, the APC lawmakers were trying to allow the then Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, access to the chambers, but policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), prevented him from entering.

The incident happened on Thursday, November 20, 2014, when the picture, alongside other pictures from the incident, was first published by respective news media outlets and bloggers on different social media platforms.

The photos were first shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the late Imam Imam, the then spokesperson to Speaker Tambuwal.

The person in the original image, according to the findings, is Hon. Abdulmalik Usman Cheche, who represented the Bida/Gbako/Katcha federal constituency of Niger State in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 and served as the Vice-Chairman of the Culture & Tourism Committee.

Further checks by Osun Defender revealed that the version that has Yahaya Bello in it surfaced on the Internet on April 18, 2024, a day after the unsuccessful attempt by the EFCC to arrest the former Kogi helmsman.

VERDICT: The claim that Yahaya Bello jumped the fence of his Abuja residence to evade EFCC’s arrest is FALSE because the original image was edited with Cheche’s head replaced with Bello’s head in the image.