Photo altered to falsely claim it shows passport of Nigerian separatist movement

“As the whole world is banning and rejecting Nigeria Passport & Visa at hand. Yorùbá Nation Diplomatic Passport is Recognized, Authenticated, and gives you immunity for free passage in West Africa, Europe Countries, and North America (sic),” reads the caption of an X post published on July 12, 2025.

Yoruba Nation is a separatist movement pressing for an independent Yoruba state in southwest Nigeria (archived here).

The movement gained popularity in early 2021 after Yoruba separatist and activist Sunday Igboho travelled to different communities in the southwest where he publicly demanded that Fulani herders leave the region (archived here).

In October 2021, he fled the country after Nigerian security officials fought an hour-long gun battle during a raid on his home. He was arrested in neighbouring Benin soon after, but he was freed in January 2024 (archived here). 

Image

Screenshot of the altered post, taken August 8, 2025

Attached to the X post is an image of a person with orange nail polish holding the purported Yoruba Nation diplomatic passport.

The post was shared by an account called “KoikiMedia”, which has more than 48,000 followers. The account’s bio says its “job is to help your business tell the story you want to tell”, but a review of its feed shows mainly content in support of the Yoruba Nation. 

The claim has been shared elsewhere on Facebook, including here and here.  

However, the posts are false.

Altered image

Using Google Lens to conduct a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check traced the picture to a Facebook video published on June 24, 2025 (archived here).

In the opening two seconds of the clip, the same hand is seen holding the passport. However, the inscription on the document is different, revealing it is a Nigerian passport with the words “Economic Community of West African States” on the top and “Republic of Nigeria” at the bottom.

A closer look at the image of the purported Yoruba Nation diplomatic passport shows it has been altered, with visible signs of digital editing.

Image

Comparison screenshots of the Facebook video (left) and the altered image on X, taken on August 8, 2025

As for the post’s claim that the Nigerian passport is rejected globally, this is misleading. According to the 2025 Henley Passport Index published in July, Nigeria’s passport climbed to its highest global position in 11 years. It is now ranked 88th out of 199 countries, giving holders visa‑free or visa‑on‑arrival access to 45 countries (archived here).

The index does not include a Yoruba Nation passport, as no such document legally exists. 

Push for recognition

Like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, which wants independence in the southeast region of Nigeria, Yoruba Nation supporters have used misinformation (here and here) to push their separatist agenda in the southwest (archived here and here). 

Local media have reported that Igboho, the Yoruba activist, employed Olayemi Koiki, a UK-based blogger who runs the Facebook page Koiki Media, as his spokesman (archived here).  

In a Facebook post published on July 12, 2025, Koiki Media claimed the UNPO had recognised the diplomatic passport of the Yoruba Nation.

The UNPO acronym may sound to some like it denotes a UN agency (like UNOCHA, UNESCO, or UNHCR), but it is an acronym for the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation.

On its website, UNPO describes itself as an “international membership-based organization established to empower the voices of unrepresented and marginalised peoples worldwide and to protect their fundamental human rights” (archived here).

The UNPO website states that “the Yoruba people should be allowed to exercise their right to self-determination, as they have a valid right to do so”. 

The Yoruba Nation passport design seen in the false posts has also appeared elsewhere on Facebook, like here and here.

There is also a website for the “Yoruba Nation Passport Office”, which contains little more than a search bar and two phone numbers in Benin and the UK (archived here).

According to “Who.is”, a publicly available tool for checking website registration data, the domain was registered on June 28, 2025, by Adedayo Falade. A search indicates Falade is a Yoruba Nation supporter based in the UK (archived here and here).