The post, which has been shared more than 260 times since it was published, features an image of Sanwo-Olu flanked by several people – including Obi reportedly – holding a card inscribed with ‘Cowry’ used for boarding public transport in Lagos.
The image was posted by an account called “Comrade Adabanpegede Abanikanda Etiogbosuti”. The account’s feed contains content and posts endorsing the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leader, President Bola Tinubu.
Politically, Lagos State is known as an APC stronghold due to the party’s dominance in elections and occasional mergers that have kept the party in power for over two decades.
Obi is a former governor of Anambra State and is seen as a force against the established political order in Nigeria after finishing third in the 2023 presidential race (archived here).
However, the post attempts to ridicule Obi, who has been vocal about the need for Nigeria to industrialize and build sustainable governance but has been criticized for his own record as governor (archived here and here).
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AFP Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the image.
One of the results led to a Facebook post shared by Sanwo-Olu on October 15, 2024.
In the post, the governor shared an album of nine photos, all of which showed him flanked by government officials on the same train. According to Sanwo-Olu, the images were taken during the launch of the commercial operation of the 37-kilometre Lagos Red Line Rail running from north to south across the state (archived here).
“At exactly 5.20pm, the Lagos Red Line Rail departed from Platform 2 at Oyingbo Station, heading towards Agbado. This inaugural ride symbolizes a new era in public transportation for our great state,” Sanwo-Olu wrote.
A comparison of the photos shows that Obi’s image has been digitally inserted, replacing the man in a suit on the right of the photo in question.
Some of the photos posted on Facebook were also published on the official Lagos State website (archived here), which again shows that Obi was not part of the junket.
