Photo grid of Tiamiyu and Kinzhal L-R.
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Claim: A Liberian TikToker, Kinzhal of Monrovia, claimed that the United Kingdom government arrested a controversial YouTuber from Nigeria, Emdee Tiamiyu, for defrauding the government of £160,000 in asylum support to build a house in Ogun State.
Verdict: MISLEADING. The United Kingdom only provides £49.18 per week for asylum seekers, contradicting the amount mentioned in the video. Also, a photographer from San Kanphaeng village in Thailand took the image of the house in the video.
Full Text
Diverse factors force Nigerians to seek greener pastures abroad in droves, and the United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most favoured options for migration. In 2023 alone, about 141,000 Nigerians fled to the country, making it the second highest behind India at 253,000.
But a Nigerian YouTuber based in the UK, Emdee Tiamiyu, faced backlash from his countrymen when he said in a 2023 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that Nigerians often seek admission into universities in the country as an alternative means to ‘japa’ (a Yoruba slang that means to flee) from Nigeria.
This interview contributed to some migration policies that the government introduced to limit applicants’ chances. These policies include more challenging minimum income requirements and changes to student visas and dependent opportunities.
Recently, a TikToker from Liberia, Kinzhal of Monrovia, posted a video clip claiming that the UK government arrested Mr Tiamiyu on allegations of fraud.
This went viral on social media as an Instagram blog, Gossipmillnaijaofficial, shared it. The video gained more than 767,000 views, 64,800 likes, and 4,937 comments as of March 25, 2024.
Saint Avenue Entertainment used the video to gain 2,598 reactions and 299 comments, while Yahoosojaa, a verified Instagram account, gained more than 24,000 views, 2,286 reactions, and 120 comments with the same video.
We traced Kinzhal’s TikTok account and found more than 2,400 reactions, 295 comments, and more than 1,500 reshares on the original video.
However, reactions on his page raised curiosity. A TikTok user, Mypuce, revealed that the United Kingdom government does not give asylum seekers such an amount.
“I’m a British citizen living in London for 35 years, and [I’ve] never heard such [a] story,” Mypuce said. Another comment made by Olugbenga
Another user, Ajanaku, corroborated Mypuce’s observation and further indicated that asylum takes years to conclude.
These contradictory comments prompted DUBAWA to investigate the claim and ascertain the facts.
Verification
The dominating claim in the video was that Mr Tiamiyu committed fraud of £160,000 in asylum grants. But in DUBAWA’s investigation, we discovered that the government only provides £49.18 per week for asylum seekers. The government’s official website revealed that asylum seekers and each person in their household can access the fund and other benefits.
Using this data, an asylum seeker cannot get the claimed amount of £160,000 even after a year of 52 weeks. The total will be £2557.36 within a calendar year.
Also, DUBAWA conducted a reverse image search on the image of the building he referred to as the house Mr Tiamiyu was constructing in Ogun state. We discovered that the earliest image of the exact building was shared on Feb. 20, 2018, when a photographer from Thailand, identified as Kwangmoozaa, uploaded it on iStockphoto, an online royalty photography provider.
The picture, captioned “Construction residential new house in progress at building site stock photo,” was taken from San Kanphaeng village in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Google Earth indicated a distance of 6,431.89 miles between Abeokuta, where the claim suggested that the house was built, and Chiang Province, the building’s actual location.
We reached out to Mr Tiamiyu via his Instagram account to confirm the claim about him getting arrested, but we are yet to receive any feedback as of March 25, 2024.
Also, no reputable media organisation reported the alleged arrest. We further reached out to the United Kingdom Metropolitan Police via mail to confirm his alleged arrest, but we have yet to receive a response as of the time this report was filed.
Conclusion
The amount mentioned as asylum support in the claim is false. Also, the image he referred to as Mr Tiamiyu’s construction project was from Thailand, not Ogun State. Therefore, the claims in the video are misleading.
This analysis is nonsense. People who defraud the system often use multiple accounts to claim several payments simultaneously. People have been known to use up to 30, 40, 50 identities to claim benefits. I’m not saying Tiamiyu did it, all I am saying is that whoever wrote this article clearly has no clue what he is writing about. Perhaps we should start fact-checking the fact checkers?
Any update on your inquiry so far? Has he been arrested or deported really or not?