Back to Africa Check

Newly upgraded stadium in Nigeria’s Oyo state under water? No, photos of UK’s Hillsborough stadium in 2007

Photos posted on Facebook in Nigeria show a sports stadium flooded with water.

“Omituntun International Stadium, Ibadan, Oyo State. Engr Seyi Makinde, you are doing well. 5.5billion,” their caption reads.

On 2 September 2021, Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde unveiled the remodelled Lekan Salami stadium in Ibadan, the state capital. In 2020, it was reported that the renovations would cost N5.5 billion.

But a downpour during a football match at the launch flooded the pitch and caused the stadium’s roof to leak.

Do the photos show the Ibadan stadium? We checked.

Stadium_False

Flooding at Hillsborough Stadium

A reverse image search reveals that the photos are more than 14 years old and were taken in Sheffield, England.

 

 

In June 2007 the Hillsborough stadium, home to the Sheffield Wednesday football club, was flooded after the River Don burst its banks during heavy rains.

The photos can be seen in a throwback tweet posted on 5 June 2020, as well as in a 2007 report by the UK’s Daily Mail.

The BBC also reported the flooding at the stadium, and the photos appear in a 2017 post on Owlstalk, an online forum for Sheffield fans.

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.