Fact-check: Did President Tinubu Provide Truckloads of Rice to Lawmakers for distributions to Constituencies during Yuletide?

Fact-check: Did President Tinubu Provide Truckloads of Rice to Lawmakers for distributions to Constituencies during Yuletide?

Claims: A viral video on YouTube and Facebook claims that Hon. Anamero Dekeri, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Etsako federal constituency, received six trailers of grain (mainly rice) from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. The grain was allegedly given to members of the National Assembly as Christmas palliatives to share with their constituents for the yuletide celebration.

Full Text: In the video footage, Hon. Dekeri is seen and heard appreciating the president while showcasing the bags of rice in the segment of the warehouse and explaining to the people standing with him how the rice came about as well as the quantities that was given to his constituency. 

The original video has these texts, “The Honourable member representing Etsako federal constituency in the house of representatives, Hon. Dekeri Anamero has announced that president Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave members, House of Representatives two trailers of rice to share to their various constituencies across the board.

Hon. Dekeri said at least each member of the House of Representatives got at least two trailers each. He made this known in Etsako, Edo State.”

Did the same thing happen in other constituencies during the Yuletide?

Recall that in August 2023, the Federal Government reportedly approved N5 billion in palliatives for each state, including the FCT, and five trucks of rice for each state governor to help with the impact of fuel subsidy removal. This information is separate from the claim about trailers of rice for the National Assembly members.

Verification: To verify the authenticity of the video, PRNigeria fact-check broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search which revealed that the video started trending on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook in the first week of January 2024.

Further probing revealed another video which has surfaced through the X handle of @oshoromigie-h…which seemed to support Hon. Dekeri’s claims, although in a different constituency in the state. The user wrote, “10,000 bags of rice by Marcus Onob..” the grain was stored in an enclosed space and labeled as belonging to the Okpebholo Federal Constituency of Edo State. While the video claims that the rice is meant for the constituency, it is unclear whether this is accurate or if the rice was distributed to the constituents.

According to a Premium Times report, Olusegun Dada, the special assistant on social media to President Bola Tinubu stated that the federal government had distributed palliative items worth N200 million and N100 million to senators and members of the House of Representatives respectively.  but the Senate has debunked claims that each of its members has started taking stock of the Federal Government’s palliative items for their constituents.

Olusegun Dada, had written the “confirmation” on his official X handle. 

“After initial logistics delay, I can now confirm that Senators and members of the House of Representatives have started taking stock of the Federal Government’s palliative items for their constituents as part of efforts to ease life for all Nigerians. Each HOR member received items worth N100m while Senatorial constituencies got palliative items worth N200m” the presidential aide wrote.

Equally, fact check revealed that two federal lawmakers from Edo State, Rt. Hon. Dennis Idahosa and Hon. Dekeri Anamero, who is also in the viral video, have different perspectives on the supply of truckloads of rice meant as Christmas palliatives by the federal government for lawmakers to share with their constituents. While this information sheds light on the issue, it is important to note that it does not provide a definitive answer regarding the distribution of the rice.

On the contrary, investigation also revealed one house member, elected on the platform of Labour Party (LP), representing Oredo Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representatives on X with the name and handle (Engr. Esosa Iyawe, @EsosaIyawe) stated that: “In view of the recent post from Hon Anamero Dekeri MHR Etsako, I would like to affirm that  NO LP Rep member in Edo state received not even an okada bike of rice from the FG this Yuletide season.

“All palliatives shared in Oredo Federal Constituency during the Yuletide season were personally purchased.” This is contrary to what Hon. Dekeri claimed in the viral Video.

Meanwhile, Yemi Adaramodu, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said “he had yet to get any palliative goods from the federal government.”

But another house member added that “the procurement procedure is at various levels depending on the constituency, but that no MP has been handed any money for palliatives.”

In the same vein, further inquest revealed that a member representing Ijebu Central  Federal Constituency, in Ogun state, Femi Ogunbanwo ( OMO-IWA ), claimed his constituency has not received anything like that. According to him, “this information and claim is not only  spurious but also  misleading. As the Member representing the financially prudent people of Ijebu Central  Federal Constituency, I can categorically say that not one bag of rice has been given by /supplied  from the Federal Government of Nigeria for the purpose of distributions to any  Constituency.”

PRNigeria fact check during the investigation observed that:

Besides Hon. Dekeri,  no other federal legislators from other states of the federation have confirmed the receipt of president Tinubu’s Christmas rice palliatives.

Besides Olusegun Dada, the special assistant on social media to President Bola Tinubu, there’s no official statement from the presidency to substantiate the claims by Hon. Dekeri.

Conclusion: From the fact-check findings there’s no concrete evidence to substantiate the claims.

PRNigeria therefore concludes that there is no SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE to support the claim by Honourable Dekeri that President Tinubu provided truck loads of rice for distributions by lawmakers to various constituencies across the country.

By PRNigeria