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Claim: IT student who cleared the debts of MTN subscribers has been arrested.
Verdict: FALSE. The image used to portray the alleged IT student who cleared the debts of MTN subscribers is that of a Nigerian man charged with murder in London in 2014. Also, according to the Punch report, the “ debt cancellation” was a system glitch.
Full Text
In Nov. 2023, subscribers of the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) service provider widely celebrated a “cancellation” of their debt on the mobile network’s package, XtraTime. XtraTime allows subscribers to borrow airtime if their airtime has been exhausted.
On Saturday, Dec. 11, 2023, a Facebook user, Update King, announced that an Industrial Training (IT) student, who allegedly cleared the debts of MTN subscribers over airtime borrowing, has been arrested by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).
“The IT student who cleared all MTN users’ debt last month has been arrested.” The Facebook user announced.
Along with the text was an attached photo of a man in his twenties, accosted by two police officers.
The post has since garnered 89 likes, 54 comments, and 102 shares as of Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
A majority of those who commented clamoured for the man’s release.
“Make una free this guy jare.” Dar Ling commented. This means the man in question should be freed.
“Please let him be free.” Uquaa Edison also clamoured.
The post has since gone viral across notable social media, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok.
Due to the sensitivity and virality of the claim, DUBAWA decided to verify it.
Verification
We conducted a keyword search on Google related to the arrest but found no reliable report. However, we came across a news report published by Punch newspaper on Nov. 11, 2023.
In the report, MTN acknowledged the situation and described it as a “system error.” The network provider clarified that the incident was caused by an “unexpected glitch”. However, the debt status of the defaulting subscribers remained valid.
We also used Google Reverse Image Search to analyse the picture, and it linked us with a news report published by Premium Times. In the story, we found out that the image originally depicts a Nigerian man, identified as 23-year-old Jefferey Okafor, who was deported from London in 2014 for a murder trial.
Mr Okafor had fled London for Nigeria after he was found to have been connected with the murder of 19-year-old Carl Asiedu, a disc jockey, in Aug. 2009. However, in 2014, the Nigerian police discovered Mr Okafor in Asaba, the capital of Delta State, and prepared to extradite him to London for possible prosecution.
DUBAWA’s contact with MTN and the NPF via emails yielded no response.
Conclusion
The image used to portray the alleged IT student who cleared the debts of MTN subscribers is that of a man charged with murder in London in 2014. MTN also told Punch that the cancellation was due to a system glitch.
