Video shows South African celebrity, not suspected kidnapper’s sister

“My Brother Is Not A Kidnapper, He Was Paid To Act As One To Dent Igbo's Image, He First Contacted Me And Told Me Of The Gist, I Told Him Not To, but I Did Not Know He Later Accepted The Offer - Chinaza's Sister Speaks Out (sic),” reads a post on Instagram.

Image

A screenshot of the false claim, taken on January 21, 2022

Liked more than 750 times, the post features a carousel of several images. They include photos of a woman and a man respectively, a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation about a vague money-making scheme, and a screenshot of a police tweet announcing the arrest of a suspected kidnapper.

“My Brother Is Not A Kidnapper, He Was Paid To Act As One To Dent Igbo's Image” is written just above the first pictures.

Several accounts on X (here and here) and Facebook (here and here) shared the same claim.

Abuja has seen an uptick in kidnapping incidents in recent months, with gangs known locally as bandits targeting highways, gated communities, and apartments in and around the capital. 

The abduction of five sisters near the city at the start of the year sparked a national outcry; the kidnappers killed one of the sisters and the family turned to social media to crowdfund ransom money for their release. 

The remaining sisters were freed on January 21, 2024 (archived here).

The day before their release, the spokesman for the Nigerian police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, announced that Chinaza Philip Okoye Michael – the man whose image is included in the claim – was arrested for kidnapping at a gas station in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria (archived here).

He said Michael had previously been arrested for “similar offences” in November but was granted bail by an Abuja court. 

However, the claim that the photo shows the suspect’s sister is false. 

South African actress 

Using reverse image search, AFP Fact Check traced the photo to a Pinterest page called “Matilda Mbhele”. 

The page identified the person in the photo as Ayanda Thabethe (archived here). They also contained a link to a Tumblr account, which posted the same photo seven years ago (archived here).

A keyword search for “Ayanda Thabethe” led to a website that showed that she is a South African model and actress (archived here). 

The website also contained an Instagram handle. A manual page search showed that Thabethe posted the photo used in the false claim on March 21, 2016 (archived here). 

Other photos on the page show that Thabethe is the same person whose image is used in the false claim. 

AFP Fact Check contacted the actress for comment and is awaiting a reply.

Meanwhile, the false claim credited Igbo Times as the source of the alleged “statement” that it said was released by the kidnapping suspect’s sister.

Igbo Times Magazine operates a blog and Facebook account through which it has regularly spread misinformation. It has been the subject of AFP Fact Check debunks several times in the past, including here, here and here. 

The Nigerian police is yet to respond to AFP Fact Check’s request for comment.