No, this is not a recent photo of a $28,000 Nigerian bridge

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 13, 2019 at 10:08
Updated on February 13, 2019 at 10:10
2 min read
By Emmanuel AKINWOTU, Mary KULUNDU

Posts shared thousands of times on Facebook claim that a lawmaker in northwest Nigeria commissioned a small wooden bridge for 10 million naira ($28,000). But the illustration used with the post, of a man holding a yellow ribbon tied across a bridge, has already appeared online in the past, in posts linking it to either Kenya or Tanzania.

“JUST IN: A Member of House of Reps (APC) in Zamfara State commissioned a wooden bridge which was constructed at a cost of N10Million,” claims the post, published on January 24 on the Facebook page Nigeria Politics Today.

“Sometimes i feel like Nigeria was made for stand up comedies!!” reads the post, which has been shared more than 2,900 times.

A screenshot taken on January 31, 2019, of a Facebook post by Nigeria Politics Today claiming a lawmaker in Nigeria commissioned a wooden bridge at the cost of $28,000

That post claimed the photograph showed a lawmaker from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), while other posts have also shared the image, claiming it shows a lawmaker from the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The man, who has his head facing down, has yet to be identified.

But AFP found the same image was used back in 2017 on posts linking it to Kenya.

The earliest version we could find is on the Kenyan news and entertainment website Nairobi Wire on February 6, 2017 as part of a gallery of “some of the craziest images doing rounds on the internet”. It did not give any details of when or where the picture was taken.

A screenshot taken on February 5, 2019 shows the photo on a Kenyan humour forum

A day later it appeared on Jamiiforums.com, a Swahili-language message board which says its offices are in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Comments under the post debate whether Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has a future.

Six months later the photo popped up again on “Chepalungu constituency wembe room”, a Facebook page discussing politics in Bomet County, southwest Kenya. This time it appeared alongside comments on local Kenyan politics.

A screenshot taken on January 31, of post by the Facebook page, "Chepalungu constituency wembe room" describing the politician commissioning the bridge as the outgoing governor of Bomet, in Kenya.

We’re still working to identify the man standing on the bridge, but the suggestion that it was taken recently in Nigeria is false.

EDIT: The headline of this story was changed on February 13, 2019. The original headline
("No, this photo does not show a Nigerian bridge that cost $28,000") implied that the bridge
 is not in Nigeria. As detailed in the article, we know the photo was not taken recently but we
do not yet know where it was taken. The header image has also been changed to reflect this.

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