BY: Mustapha Lawal
Claim:
A viral video shows Hajiya Maryam Wadada, wife of APC governorship candidate Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, distributing cash to voters in Osun State ahead of the August 15 governorship election.
Verdict:
False. The video does not show a cash distribution event in Osun State. Available evidence indicates that the event took place in Nasarawa State.
Full Text
As political activities intensify ahead of the Osun State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, August 15, 2026, videos and images purporting to show vote-buying and other forms of electoral inducement have continued to circulate online.
One such video shows a woman identified as Hajiya Maryam Wadada, wife of Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, handling and distributing bundles of naira notes to people gathered around a table.
The approximately two-and-a-half-minute video has been shared on X and Facebook, with some users presenting it as evidence that the wife of an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate was distributing money to voters ahead of the Osun election.
The original post, however, did not identify Osun State as the location of the event.
The X account Mujahid Saleh Saad (@MujahidSSaad) shared the video with a caption claiming that Hajiya Maryam Wadada, described as the wife of an APC governorship candidate, was “spotted sharing millions of newly printed ₦500 notes to her supporters during a visit.”
The post did not specify where the incident occurred.
However, subsequent users began attaching an Osun context to the video. Facebook users including Ilekhomon Peterson, Mazi IkeGod Ikenwachuku and DAILY LIGHT shared or commented on the video, claiming that it showed Wadada’s wife distributing money in Osun ahead of the governorship election.
On X, the account Youth in Process (@Youthinprocess) also suggested that the footage was recorded in Osun State. The attribution gained attention because of the ongoing debate around vote-buying and campaign spending ahead of the election.
FactCheckAfrica examined the claim to establish where the video was actually recorded.
Verification
FactCheckAfrica first examined the original post and the complete video. While the post identified the woman as Hajiya Maryam Wadada, wife of Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, it did not identify the location as Osun State.
We subsequently searched news reports and social media posts for evidence linking the footage to Osun State. The searches did not produce credible reports establishing that the event took place in Osun.
The list of candidates participating in the Osun governorship election was also reviewed. Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada is not the APC governorship candidate in Osun State. The APC candidate contesting the election is Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji.
This is significant because the viral posts describe Maryam Wadada as the wife of an APC governorship candidate without specifying that her husband is contesting in another state. The omission creates a misleading connection between the video and the Osun election.
FactCheckAfrica also examined the setting and language used in the footage. Hausa is spoken throughout the video, and the language provides an important geographical clue. Hausa is predominantly spoken across northern Nigeria, including Nasarawa State.
Osun State is in southwestern Nigeria, where Yoruba is the dominant indigenous language. Language alone cannot conclusively establish the location of an event, particularly where people travel between states. However, in this case, the linguistic evidence is consistent with other available information identifying the event as having occurred in Nasarawa State, while no credible evidence was found connecting the footage to Osun.
Further searches of versions of the video and accompanying posts found that accounts providing contextual information about the event consistently associated it with Nasarawa. By contrast, the Osun attribution appeared in subsequent posts without evidence establishing the location.
The Osun connection is unsupported. The central problem with the viral claim is therefore not whether the woman in the video is Maryam Wadada. Available evidence supports her identification.
The problem is where the video was recorded and what it represents. There is no evidence establishing that the cash distribution shown in the footage occurred in Osun State or was connected to the state’s 2026 governorship election.
This distinction is important because an authentic video can still become misinformation when it is given a false location or context. In this case, footage from an event associated with a politician from Nasarawa State was recirculated and presented as an incident involving the Osun election.
Conclusion
The viral video does show Hajiya Maryam Wadada, wife of Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, handling and distributing cash. However, there is no credible evidence that the event took place in Osun State or was connected to the state’s August 15 governorship election. Available evidence, including the language spoken in the video and contextual information accompanying other versions of the footage, places the event in Nasarawa State.
The video was therefore misattributed to Osun State.
