Claim: Tope Fasua, a Facebook user, shared a video of what appears to be Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, lamenting over his experience behind bars, after he was arraigned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for online financial fraud.
The video purportedly of Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, lamenting over his experience behind bars, after he was arraigned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for online financial fraud, is fake. Analysis of the video showed it was a deep fake created for a comedy YouTube channel.
Full Text
Ramon Olorunwa Abbas is a popular personality in Nigeria. Last year, his name took over the headlines after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for charges relating to online financial fraud, what is popularly referred to as “yahoo-yahoo” in Nigeria.
Over months that followed the arrest, Hushpuppi has triggered multiple discourses and has also been a point of controversy. Recently, a Facebook user shared a video of what appears to be Hushpuppi lamenting behind bars and sharing his experiences in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The alleged video depicted Hushpuppi chattering about the amount of money found in his apartment and also claiming to still be in possession of $250 million that is kept in his apartment “untouched.”
He was also depicted to express his regret “snapping and spending money” with politicians that have now abandoned and deserted him.
In the comments section of the post, one user commented, “Guy man, just calm down and do your time jejely.”
Another commenter said, “FBI don chop you. Just cool down, do your time in 20 years and you will see the green grass of home.”
Majority of the comments seem to resonate with Hushpuppi’s situation, signalling a sense of consent to the video’s originality. Even more, the video has been seen by over 4,000 users, calling for verification of the claim.
Verification
To verify the originality of the alleged video, DUBAWA conducted a search on Google to find any related report to the alleged video, but none was found.
However, the video was traced to a comedy YouTube channel, @akposthecomedian where it was identified as having been originally shared a year ago.
Analysis of the video
In the video, the facial attributes of Hushpuppi are marred by obvious adulteration. This is evident in the words uttered by the supposed Hushpuppi. The sound of his voice clearly does not conform with the movement of the lips.
Also, the eyes of the supposed Hushpuppi also signalled another red flag. As his speech gets emotional, his pupils have no human presence. His eyelashes jolted inconsistently throughout the video.
Our general assessment of his facial features shows that the supposed Hushpuppi was a deepfake. This is also evident in the lips of the supposed Hushpuppi, exhibiting different colours as he lamented.
These findings led DUBAWA to conduct an analysis of the alleged video on Deepware (an online tool that identifies deep fakes). The results showed that it was a deep fake; in fact, both versions of the video from Facebook, and the original source were both found to be deepfakes.
Conclusion
The alleged video has been in existence on social media since 2020 and was only reshared by a Facebook user to revive the narrative. The video is also doctored as revealed by Deepware and was deliberately created by a Youtuber to generate clicks from viewers. Hence, this claim is fake.
