A viral image of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lying on a hospital bed has been circulating on social media with the claim that Tinubu is sick while abroad.
NewsNGR had earlier reported that Tinubu jetted out of the country for the United Kingdom to begin his two-week vacation.
CLAIM
October 11, 2024, an X user, @bappha, posted the image with a caption in Hausa language that translates thus: “Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him, we return. From reliable sources, there are little emotional signs in his body.”
The post has attracted, 89,400 views, 89 reposts, 26 quotes, 923 likes and 37 bookmarks as of press time
Another X user, @Been_Nazeeph, posted the same image with a different caption: “What a lifetime opportunity to cement your legacy 🤔”.
Similar claims were shared via YouTube here, and on Facebook here.
VERIFICATION
Findings by NewsNGR show that the image was photoshopped and was first shared online in 2018.
Our fact-checker extracted screenshots of the YouTube footage and subjected it to Google Lens reverse image search. The results show that the photograph of a photojournalist, Sunmi Smart-Cole, on his hospital bed in 2018 was manipulated to arrive at the trending image.
Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation International magazine, first posted the image of the sick journalist on X on April 7, 2018.
“There lies one of Nigeria’s greatest photojournalists SUNMI SMART-COLE in his hospital bed. He was in bad shape when I saw him at the TINUBU COLLOQUIUM. He collapsed several times and Professor Pat Utomi and I held him but he held on to his camera and kept firing. Get well pls”, his caption reads.
Our fact-checker observed that the settings of Smart-Cole’s room at the hospital have similar items to those seen in the photoshopped photo of President Tinubu on a sick bed.
The items include a bottle of Jergens lotion, a glass of water, a pear fruit, jar, reading glasses, a portable recorder and a DStv remote.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has departed the UK and is currently in France.
VERDICT
The trending image of President Tinubu on a sick bed is MISLEADING. Our findings show that the image was photoshopped from that of Nigerian photo-journalist, Sunmi Smart-Cole.