Claim: Nigerian actor Lateef Adedimeji just opened a filling station.
Verdict: Fake news.
Full Text:
Two Facebook pages claim that Nigerian actor Lateef recently opened a filling station named ADE Gas.
The claim has garnered reactions from fans of the movie star, making about 9.6k people share congratulatory comments, with more than 400 accounts sharing the ‘good news’ on other Facebook groups and pages.
Facebook pages sharing the claim to thousands of their followers
A lead character in Lisabi and Jagun Jagun, Lateef is a household name in Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry. The award-winning filmmaker has starred in many movies, some of which he produced or featured.
The recent claim excites many of Lateef’s fans who have shared the story with many pages created in the actor’s name. The claim has also gained 49.7k likes on an unnamed Tiktok page, where it was first shared.
The page (left) is a fan page while the page (right) claims to be a “news & media website” but has no link to its actual website; rather a link to a Telegram channel with thousands of members.
Verification:
Ripples Nigeria observed that the claim was attributed to an unnamed Tiktoker, which raises a red flag.
Instead of a link to the source of the story, the Facebook page attached a link to its Telegram account. This shows the story is shared to farm members to the Telegram page.
There’s no related post of the filmmaker opening a filling station on his social media handles and mainstream media.
Further checks on Corporate Affairs Commission and NG-Check.com websites reveal no Nigerian oil and gas company with the name “Ade Gas”.
Logo of the filling station reveals it belongs to a Romanian company.
Using Google Reverse Search on the logo of the filling station, results lead to a privately owned Romanian company. According to its website info, ADE Gas “carries out Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) marketing and distribution operations in Romania.”
Conclusion:
The filling station supposedly opened by the popular actor and filmmaker is owned by a Romanian company; the oil and gas company has no branch in Nigeria.
By: Quadri Yahya
