Nigeria: Ignore Old, Fake Claim That Nigeria's Abia State Government Stopped Financial Crimes Commission Convoy and Demanded Release of Arrested Youths

19 January 2026
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Muktar Balogun

Ignore old, fake claim that Nigeria's Abia state government stopped financial crimes commission convoy and demanded release of arrested youths

IN SHORT: Facebook posts have claimed, once again, that Abia state governor Alex Otti stopped an Economic and Financial Crims Commission convoy in Aba and ordered the agency out of the city, attributing inflammatory remarks to him. But this is false and has circulated since May 2025.

Several Facebook users have claimed that Alex Otti, Abia state's governor, stopped a convoy of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to demand the release of young boys arrested in Aba and instructed the EFCC to leave Aba.

The EFCC is the agency responsible for fighting financial crimes in Nigeria.

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One post, dated 7 January 2026, reads: "The Abia State Government has blocked the convoy of the EFCC in Aba after they arrested more than 59 youths and attempted to move them to Abuja. Governor Otti ordered his security team to stop the convoy and demanded the immediate release of all 59 boys, instructing them to leave Aba at once."

Africa Check fact-checked the same claim, word-for-word, in May 2025 and found it to be untrue and that the state government had denied it. The claim resurfaced again in January 2026, with the same statement attributed to Otti: "Aba boys are not thieves or killer herdsmen. No such arrests of my people will happen under my watch. Head back to Sokoto and arrest the Fulani herdsmen, not innocent Aba youths."

Aba is the major commercial and industrial hub of Abia state in southeastern Nigeria. Sokoto state is in the northwestern region.

In Nigeria, tensions between Fulani herders and farming communities have intensified due to competition over land and resources. While some criminal activities, such as armed attacks, kidnappings, and banditry, have been attributed to individuals identified as Fulani, there is no evidence that the group as a whole is involved in crime

The same claim can be found here, here, here, here and here.

But did Otti block an EFCC convoy for arresting Aba boys? We checked

'Fake news'

Ferdinand Ekeoma, the senior special adviser to Abia state governor on media and publicity, told Business Day the story was "false and baseless" and urged the public to disregard the claim.

"There was no such statement from the governor and no action or engagement of that kind with the EFCC. So, it is completely false and should be ignored. Nothing like that happened," he said.

The claim, which first surfaced in May 2025, is a recycled one. It remains untrue.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. X @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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