IN SHORT: After the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was not only suspended but arrested, too, rumours have swirled in the country. But this viral video of piles of dollar bills being counted is from Sudan over three years ago, and was not shot in the ex-governor’s house.
A video posted on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok shows bundles of US dollar bills being removed from a suitcase, stacked on a table and counted in two counting machines.
The video has appeared in several posts with captions claiming the dollars were retrieved from the home of the ousted governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
Nigeria’s new president Bola Tinubu suspended Emefiele on 9 June 2023 and ordered a probe of the central bank. Emefiele headed the bank for nine years.
After his suspension was announced, Emefiele was arrested and detained by the Department of State Security (DSS) but he was not charged officially.
However, according to Reuters, court documents released by the attorney general's office and the DSS showed that Emefiele faces several criminal charges, including breach of trust and misappropriation of funds.
One Facebook post with the video is captioned: “This video is showing the raid at Emefiele's house by the DSS, look the loads of money(Dollars) found in his house while making Nigerians suffer, central bank governor has embezzled all the Nigeria's fund.”
The video was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here and here with similar claims.
Video from 2019 in Sudan
A Google reverse image search of a screenshot from the video led to dozens of results, including a report by online newspaper the Spy Uganda.
On 19 April 2019 the newspaper reported that the video showed millions of dollars being recovered from the home of Omar Al-Bashir who was removed as president of Sudan on 11 April by a military coup.
This corresponds with several media reports of Sudanese military authorities finding stashes of foreign currencies in Al-Bashir's home after he was removed from power.
The video is old and doesn’t show money being recovered from Emefiele’s home in Nigeria in June 2023.
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