{"id":18573,"date":"2024-05-07T16:39:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T15:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=18573"},"modified":"2024-05-07T16:40:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T15:40:38","slug":"viral-claim-on-efcc-cubanas-chief-priest-agreement-to-settle-out-of-court-misleading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/viral-claim-on-efcc-cubanas-chief-priest-agreement-to-settle-out-of-court-misleading\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral claim on EFCC, Cubana’s Chief Priest agreement to settle out of court, misleading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: A WhatsApp user has circulated an image alleging that the EFCC and Cubana’s Chief Priest, Pascal Okechukwu, have resolved to settle their dispute out of court.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdict<\/strong>: MISLEADING. Findings from the official handle of  EFCC on X (@official EFCC) revealed that the case has been adjourned<\/a> to June 5, 2024, as there is yet to be an agreement on out-of-court settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission<\/a> (EFCC) arrested Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana’s Chief Priest, over alleged naira abuse on April 16, 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was arraigned<\/a> on a three-count charge the following day, April 17,  2024, at the federal high court in Lagos, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. The judge granted<\/a> him bail of N10 million with two responsible sureties in like sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the matter was called on Thursday, May 2, 2024, Cubana Chief Priest\u2019s counsel, Chikaosolu Ojukwu (SAN), informed<\/a> the court that the parties are exploring settlement and have applied that the matter be settled under the provisions of Section 14(2) of the EFCC Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on May 3, 2024, a WhatsApp user circulated a message with the headline EFCC, and the Cubana Chief Priest agreed to settle out of court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The virality of the post and its sensitivity made DUBAWA to fact-check it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We conducted a Google Reverse Image on the circulated image and discovered that the image originated from some of the mainstream<\/a> media<\/a> headlines that reported the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, contrary to the headline allegation, the official X handle of EFCC (@ Official EFCC) published<\/a> that the Cubana Chief Priest plans to enter a plea bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the resumed sitting of the court on Thursday, May 2, 2024, Okechukwu, through his lawyer, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN, told the court about a plan of his client to enter a plea bargain with the EFCC,\u201d part of the post reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Punch confirms that the EFCC is still considering the application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEFCC\u2019s prosecution counsel, Mrs Bilikisu Buhari, confirmed that the parties were discussing a settlement and that the application was still being considered,\u201d a part of their report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, there has been no agreement as the court adjourns the trial to June 5, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our findings show that the claim that EFCC and Cubana’s Chief Priest have resolved to settle out of court is misleading. Although there is a plan to do so, there has yet to be an agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher produced this fact-check for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KariKari Fellowship, in partnership with Olufisoye Adenitan, FRCN positive fm Akure Ondo State Nigeria, to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A WhatsApp user has circulated an image alleging that the EFCC and Cubana’s Chief Priest, Pascal Okechukwu, have resolved to settle their dispute out of court. Verdict: MISLEADING. Findings from the official handle of  EFCC on X (@official EFCC) revealed that the case has been adjourned to June 5, 2024, as there is yet to be an agreement on out-of-court settlement. Full Text The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana’s Chief Priest, over alleged naira abuse on April 16, 2024.  He was arraigned on a three-count charge the following day, April 17,  2024, at the federal high court in Lagos, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. The judge granted him bail of N10 million with two responsible sureties in like sum. When the matter was called on Thursday, May 2, 2024, Cubana Chief Priest\u2019s counsel, Chikaosolu Ojukwu (SAN), informed the court that the parties are exploring settlement and have applied that the matter be settled under the provisions of Section 14(2) of the EFCC Act.  However, on May 3, 2024, a WhatsApp user circulated a message with the headline EFCC, and the Cubana Chief Priest agreed to settle out of court. The virality of the post and its sensitivity made DUBAWA to fact-check it Verification We conducted a Google Reverse Image on the circulated image and discovered that the image originated from some of the mainstream media headlines that reported the story. However, contrary to the headline allegation, the official X handle of EFCC (@ Official EFCC) published that the Cubana Chief Priest plans to enter a plea bargain. \u201cAt the resumed sitting of the court on Thursday, May 2, 2024, Okechukwu, through his lawyer, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN, told the court about a plan of his client to enter a plea bargain with the EFCC,\u201d part of the post reads. Also, Punch confirms that the EFCC is still considering the application. \u201cEFCC\u2019s prosecution counsel, Mrs Bilikisu Buhari, confirmed that the parties were discussing a settlement and that the application was still being considered,\u201d a part of their report reads. Currently, there has been no agreement as the court adjourns the trial to June 5, 2024. Conclusion Our findings show that the claim that EFCC and Cubana’s Chief Priest have resolved to settle out of court is misleading. Although there is a plan to do so, there has yet to be an agreement.  The researcher produced this fact-check for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KariKari Fellowship, in partnership with Olufisoye Adenitan, FRCN positive fm Akure Ondo State Nigeria, to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,120,3812,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[4068],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-economy","category-headline","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-4Pz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4068,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"olufisoye-adenitan","display_name":"Olufisoye Adenitan","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/EFCC-image.jpg?fit=698%2C504&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18576,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions\/18576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}