On Thursday, November 13 2025, reports claiming that a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, rewarded Lieutenant Ahmed Yerima, the naval officer involved in a recent altercation with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, with a brand-new Toyota SUV surfaced online.
Before anyone could say the word ‘misinformation’, this claim spread like wildfire, prompting the need for this fact-check.
The Claim
The claim, first shared by Bright Ohlahmee, a Facebook user with 26k followers read: “BREAKING NEWS: Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has presented a hardworking soldier with a brand-new car to boost his morale and recognize his dedication. Congratulations.“
As at the time of this fact-check, the post had 493 likes, 132 comments, and 18 shares.
Screenshot from Facebook
The post was also published here, here, here, here, here, to mention a few.
The viral nature of this claim, and the weight of the controversy it carries is what prompted this fact-check you are reading..
Verification
We will begin our investigation from social media. Indeed, if the former vice president had shown such a gesture, it would have been announced in a press statement and on social media.
We visited Atiku’s Facebook Page and scrolled down to November 1, there was no post that suggested that the former vice president gave Yerima an SUV.
Screenshot from Facebook
We also visited Atiku’s X handle and had the same outcome.
We decided to visit the social media pages of Paul Ibe, Atiku’s media adviser to verify if a statement was issued in this regard.
Surprisingly, we found a press release by Ibe on behalf of Atiku, countering the claim and labeling it “fake news”.
Screenshot from X
Furthermore, our search led us to Google where we found that no reputable media outlet published the claim shared by Bright Ohlahmee.
However, we found that many reputable media outlets have published Ibe’s press release countering the claim.
Conclusion
After thorough investigation, we can conclude that former vice president Atiku Abubakar did not reward Lt Yerima with an SUV.
The claim is misleading and was posted to garner engagements and views.
Verification Tools
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