Fact Check: Did the former governor Matawalle of Zamfara bury vehicles underground?

Fact Check: Did the former governor Matawalle of Zamfara bury vehicles underground?

Claim: A photo of vehicles being buried underground has widely been circulated on social media, with claims that the cars belonged to Bello Matawalle, the former governor of Zamfara State and current defence minister of state.

The image shows a row of Toyota Land Cruisers buried up to their headlights in a trench. The surrounding soil looks dry and cracked, and a few trees and shrubs are in the background.

Full Text: The text accompanying the images read in parts, “O! cry for our people and country! A fleet of brand new vehicles was bought and secretly buried in underground tunnels by ex-Governor Matawalle of Zamfara State to evade theft of state funds!

Subahanallahi!!! (expression of shock)???????? *How wicked and heartless could people be, burying the commonwealth resources while the citizens are wallowing in poverty?*”

Bello Muhammad Matawalle was the Governor of Zamfara State from 2019 to 2023 before he was appointed Minister of State for Defence by President Bola Tinubu.

Verification: PRNigeria fact-check used reverse image search and discovered that the viral picture of the alleged vehicles had been shared on Facebook, TikTok, Linkedin and especially on X and other online platforms.

Further probing revealed that an X user with the handle @VANPDPNg had posted a text along with the picture in the claims which reads, “Discovered and seized from Ex-Gov of Zamfara state, your current Minister of State for Defence.”

Another inquest revealed a post that seems to support @VANPDPNg’s claims: “Can you imagine the extent that politicians can go just to steal from the people and conceal their loot? Some even store physical cash differently.. dollars, pounds underground and overhead tanks, while his people are dying daily of hunger, starvation, and diseases. That’s man inhumanity to man. Just imagine the pure GREED AND SELFISHNESS.” The text read in parts.@ONsogbu.

Interestingly, the PRNigeria Fact Check team discovered a post on  Reddit.com that states that: “Cars buried by Former corrupt Afghan politicians before leaving Afghanistan, recently they were discovered by the Taliban.”

“The cars weren’t fully buried but were in a trench with a reed roof and then covered in dirt to hide them underground without fully ruining the cars.”

Reddit published similar images from different sources outside Nigeria

Additional probing unveiled another report with the same claim as that on Reddit, “Cars-buried-by-Former-corrupt-Afghan-politicians-before-leaving-Afghanistan.” Other reports published the same and similar pictures. 

However, a PRNigeria fact-check observes that there were media reports alleging that after he lost his reelection to Zamfara Government House, Matawalle took several government vehicles with him for personal use.

The elected Governor of Zamfara State, Governor Dauda Lawal, has also accused Matawalle of being in the custody of state official vehicles.

Meanwhile, PRNigeria findings reveal no cars were buried in Zamfara State or anywhere in Nigeria. 

While some reports claim that photos of the vehicles were taken after the Taliban took over the government in Afghanistan others claim that speculated that they were taken when Iraqi security forces found a cache of stolen cars that smugglers near the border with Syria buried. The photos may have been taken from other contexts, such as car smuggling or theft.

While the former governor has been accused of having official state vehicles, there is no evidence to suggest that he buried them underground.

Conclusion: The RNigeria fact-check concludes that there is no proof that the incident occurred in Nigeria, let alone in Zamfara State. Similarly, there is no sufficient evidence to prove the exact location where the pictures of buried vehicles were taken.