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Claim: A Facebook user claims Obi Cubana has transferred his money to Saudi Arabia as he could not agree with CBN’s timeline for counting the cash due to its magnitude.
Verdict: Misleading! No credible news outlet has reported the user’s claim, and our research shows that the video in question was about an event in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, in 2023.
Full Text
Recently, Nigeria’s entertainment industry buzzed with several trending topics. One issue that gained momentum was the 50th birthday celebration of a Nigerian business tycoon, Obinna Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana.
In the aftermath of the event, a Facebook user, Oil money 1, shared footage alleging that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave Obi Cubana a long timeline to count the money at his birthday party, making him send it to Saudi Arabia.
The claimant added that the foreign country promised to count the money within 30 days.
The 37-minute video was segmented into four frames, with one frame allegedly showing Saudi Arabian men counting a massive sum of money, which Obi Cubana allegedly owns.
The user wrote in his caption, “Obi Cubana’s money transported to Arab banks.”
“[The] Central Bank said it will take them one year and three months before they can finish counting the money,” the claimant added.
Since it was shared on Thursday, April 17, 2025, the video has amassed about 30,000 likes, 2,700 comments, and 3,300 reposts.
The personality involved prompted DUBAWA to verify its authenticity.
Verification
DUBAWA checked credible media outlets for reports regarding the CBN’s slow time in counting Obi Cubana’s money, which made him transfer to Saudi Arabia, but found no results to substantiate the claim.
Investigating further, we conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on the first frame of the Facebook video, which led us to similar footage shared on YouTube on May 6, 2023, as seen here and here. One of the YouTube pages revealed how 19 bags of cash were recovered from eight donation boxes in Pagla Mosque in Kishoreganj.
Furthermore, we came across an AITNews report published on June 10, 2023, explaining that the clip was filmed in a mosque called ‘Pagla Masjid’ in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh.
According to the report, the mosque opens its donation boxes every three months to count its donations. However, when the video was shot, the boxes were opened four months after Ramadan in 2023.
Finally, we checked Obi Cubana’s official Facebook page but found no similar post related to the clip the claimant shared.
Conclusion
As claimed, Obi Cubana did not transfer his birthday party funds to a foreign country because of the long time frame. Findings by DUBAWA show that the 2023 video, shot in an Indian mosque, was unrelated to any incident in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia.
