Claim: Popular musician David Adedeji Adeleke, known by his stage name Davido has donated the sum of ₦100 million in the court case of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained IPOB leader.
Verdict: False.
Full Text:
A Facebook page claimed that musician Davido has made a donation of ₦100 million for the trial of Kanu, the leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.
“Breaking News: Davido stands tall for justice – donates ₦100 million to support Nnamdi Kanu’s court battle, says “you can jail a man, but not the truth”, the headline to the post reads.
Kanu is facing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on terrorism, filed against him by the Federal Government. He has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since 2021.
Recall that there have been agitations for the release of Kanu, the recent being #FreeNnamdiKanu protests staged in Abuja and some South-East States.
The Facebook post has garnered 29k likes, 6k comments and 3k shares. The page itself has 22k followers and has made several posts about Nnamdi Kanu this week.
Some of the comments question the legitimacy of the news, while others commend Davido’s “stand for justice”.
Verification:
Ripples Nigeria reports that no mainstream media reported that the popular artist Davido made a donation for Kanu’s trial.
Also, checks on Davido’s X page — which is cited as the source of the “news” — reveal no post related to a ₦100M donation to Kanu’s trial.
In fact, search on the artist’s social media pages –X, Facebook and Instagram – also reveals no posts from the past 3 months related to Kanu nor IPOB.
Ripples Nigeria also observed that the link attached to the Facebook page claiming to contain Davido’s full statement is redirecting to a betting site.
Conclusion
Contrary to the claim that Davido has made a donation of ₦100M for IPOB’s Nnamdi Kanu’s trial, findings show that the popular musician neither made a pro-IPOB post nor any post about any donation to that course.
By Quadri Yahya
