Man in lewd photo is Nigerian influencer, not US Senator

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 2, 2022 at 23:09
3 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

Social media users are claiming a man photographed with women dressed in phallic pants is US Senator Raphael Warnock -- the Democrat locked in a runoff race for reelection to his seat in the state of Georgia -- at his church. This is false; reverse image searches show the man pictured is a Nigerian influencer who goes by the moniker "Pretty Mike," not Warnock.

"Dr. warnock's church," says text over the image in a November 27, 2022 Facebook post. "This is what Herschel (Walker) is up against."

"What kind of a 'church' is reverend Warnock running?" says another post on Twitter, where the image of a line of women with a man dressed in a sleeveless, bell-bottomed garment spread widely.

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Screenshot from Facebook taken December 2, 2022

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Screenshot from Twitter taken December 2, 2022

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But the image does not show Warnock, who has for years served as the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia -- the same church where the American civil rights icon Reverend Martin Luther King Jr preached until his assassination in 1968.

Reverse image searches show the photo in social media posts and online discussions of an October 2022 stunt by Mike Eze Nwalie Nwogu, known on Instagram as "Pretty Mike Of Lagos," who showed up at the funeral service for the late mother of Nigerian record producer Don Jazzy with women clad in orange pants with penis appendages, according to online articles.

Reached by AFP, a spokesperson for Warnock's Senate reelection campaign pointed to an October 8 article featuring the same image from Ripples Nigeria, a website based in the African country. The headline says: "Pretty Mike stuns guests at Don Jazzy's mother's funeral with women wearing 'pen*s pants.'"

In an October 7 post on his verified Instagram account, "Pretty Mike Of Lagos" shared a photo of him posing with the women in the orange pants.

"Out here doing what I do best, Putting smiles and confusion In peoples mind, believe what u want, But we just Laid Mummy to final Rest in Grand style #MummyDonJazzy #PabloCubanaGrandReopeningLoadin," the influencer wrote.

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken December 2, 2022

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The interior of Ebenezer Baptist Church -- as shown on the church's social media and in the AFP photos below -- does not match the scenery in the pictures posted by "Pretty Mike Of Lagos" or the misrepresented photo circulating online.