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Claim: Facebook users shared a video suggesting that a man caught his wife as one of the women involved in the Equatorial Guinea scandal.
Verdict: The claim is false. The individuals in the video are content creators who leveraged the Equatorial Guinea scandal to gain attention on social media.
Full Text
In early November 2024, a major scandal rocked Equatorial Guinea involving Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a prominent government official and National Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF) director.
Over 400 explicit videos surfaced, allegedly depicting Mr Engonga in intimate encounters with multiple women, including the wives of colleagues and other senior officials. These videos were initially shared on private messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Still, they quickly circulated across social media platforms, including X, where they garnered widespread attention and ignited a storm of online discourse.
Locations for the filmed content reportedly included hotel rooms and Mr Engonga’s office, prompting discussions around government impropriety and the misuse of official spaces.
Public reaction in Equatorial Guinea has been intense. Social media exploded with memes, commentary, and heated discussions about the scandal’s implications for Engonga’s reputation and the government’s broader image. Mr Engonga, already under scrutiny for alleged embezzlement, has now become the centre of a national controversy that has drawn international attention.
In addition to these revelations, a recent post shared widely online features a video of a woman being approached and scolded by a man who hands her a phone, after which she cried. People sharing this post claimed the woman was among those who allegedly had an affair with Mr Engonga. See more of the posts shared here, here, here, here and here.
One post, shared by a Nigerian account @AlphaEnejovictor, stated: “Husband to one of the women involved in the trending Equatorial Guinea scandal showed his wife the explicit videos she had with Baltasar Engonga. She couldn’t believe it…”
This post drew varied reactions from Facebook users. @EjoksAkosiehwe commented: “The man should pray for his wife and forgive her. He should fight for his marriage and make it work.” In contrast, @AbrahamUnekwuItodo strongly argued: “End the marriage. No man should forgive a cheating wife.” Similarly, @JamesEchuEmmanuel remarked: “She was trying to deny it until the husband showed her the video.”
The post, shared on Nov. 6, 2024, had garnered 17,000 views, 90 comments, and 113 likes as of Nov. 7, 2024.
While the video appears to depict individuals allegedly connected to the situation, the virality, language barrier, and ambiguous nature of the content-led DUBAWA to investigate the claim.
Verification
Using a screenshot of the video and performing a Google Lens search, DUBAWA found multiple posts on social media related to the video. One noteworthy post, with a clearer version of the video, was found on a TikTok account called @LesKilowatts. This account has over 781,000 followers and 5.2 million likes, and numerous other posts featuring the same woman and man in similar videos.
DUBAWA observed that the video linked to Mr Engonga had garnered 10.2 million views on social media as of Nov. 7, 2024.
Through this TikTok account, we found links to their Facebook and YouTube pages, which hosted similar videos. On their Facebook account, they describe themselves as comedians and provide a WhatsApp number for advertisement inquiries, along with an address in “Douala Yassa.”
Using Truecaller and Google Maps, the provided number and address were traced to Cameroon, which has no connections to Equatorial Guinea. This raised further questions about the claim’s authenticity.
DUBAWA consulted Samuel Okoro, a French tutor, who interpreted the dialogue to clarify what was said in the video.
“The man in the video walks up to his wife, saying he had to force himself to get a plane ticket to see her. He starts by asking how many years they’ve been together and reminds her that she manages most of his legacy. Then, in a fit of anger, he hands her his phone and asks her to remove her glasses to watch a video,” Okoro explained to DUBAWA.
In the video, the woman begins to cry upon viewing the unseen content. The man then says, “Out of 400 videos, you made only three by yourself,” before the clip ends.
Mr Okoro concluded that the video seemed heavily sarcastic, suggesting the creators were simply making content.
A similar translated version of the video can be found here.
To further verify the video’s authenticity, DUBAWA contacted followers of the LesKilowatts account. We were able to reach @flow.gang_officie, who said he had been following the account for some time. According to him, the creators are comedians from Cameroon, where he also lives, and not from Equatorial Guinea.
He emphasised that they make comedic content, following trends, which unfortunately led many social media users to believe the woman was genuinely involved in the alleged scandal.
Observing the account closely provided additional evidence aligning with the response from the TikTok follower, as there were multiple similar videos on the account.
Finally, DUBAWA attempted to contact the account’s WhatsApp number to get the creators’ perspective on the viral video. With Mr Okoro’s assistance, a message was sent, but no response was received.
Conclusion
The investigation reveals that the claim circulating the video of a woman allegedly being confronted by her husband for being part of the Mr Engonga scandal is false.
