FACT-CHECK: Viral claim that Governor Adeleke is giving out ₦65,000 is false

By Aliyu Adam 

Claim: 

A viral WhatsApp message claims that the Governor of Osun State, Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke, popularly known as the uncle of Nigerian music star Davido, is giving Nigerians ₦65,000 to celebrate his birthday. The message contains a link directing users to submit their personal and bank account details to receive the alleged payment.

About Governor Adeleke 

Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke is a Nigerian politician, businessman, and philanthropist serving as the Executive Governor of Osun State. A native of Ede, he represented Osun West Senatorial District in the Senate from 2017 to 2019. He studied Criminal Justice in the United States and built a successful business career before entering politics. Widely known for his grassroots leadership, he has prioritised infrastructure, education, healthcare, and workers’ welfare. Adeleke officially defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Accord Party on 9 December 2025, securing the party’s governorship ticket to seek re-election.

The Lagos Voice Findings 

To verify the claim, Lagos Voice examined the links attached to the WhatsApp message.

Upon opening the website, a pop-up message immediately appeared, claiming that visitors had qualified to receive ₦65,000 from Governor Ademola Adeleke. Users were instructed to click ‘OK’ and proceed to provide their personal information.

After following the prompts, the website redirected users to another page claiming that over 50,000 Nigerians had already received the payment. Visitors were then asked to provide their state of residence, full name, bank details and other personal information.

Even after completing these steps, the payment status remained ‘Pending,’ with additional instructions suggesting that users complete another withdrawal process before receiving the money.

The Lagos Voice also observed numerous comments on the website from individuals claiming to have successfully received the payment. These comments appeared designed to convince visitors that the giveaway was genuine.

The Lagos Voice subjected the links to multiple online verification tools.

Using ‘e.Veritas,’ a website verification platform, both links received a very low trust score of 10/100. The platform identified the websites as phishing pages designed to imitate legitimate organisations and deceive users into surrendering sensitive personal and financial information.

Similarly, using ‘urlscan.io’ to verify the link, the website is approximately six months old and is hosted on Fastly’s content delivery network (CDN), primarily using the IP address 185.199.111.153 in the United States. During analysis, it communicated with seven IP addresses across two countries and seven domains, generating 526 HTTP requests. Its TLS (SSL) certificate was issued by YR1 on 16 June 2026 and is valid for three months.

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Fake Testimonials

The website also contains fabricated testimonials intended to create false credibility. One example is a comment attributed to ‘Joseph Emmanuel,’ who claims to have received the ₦65,000 payment. Such testimonials are a common social engineering tactic used to pressure users into trusting fraudulent websites.

No Official Announcement

The Lagos Voice reviewed Governor Ademola Adeleke’s official social media accounts and found no announcement regarding any ₦65,000 birthday giveaway.

Likewise, there is no statement from the Osun State Government or any verified government communication channel confirming the existence of such a programme.

Furthermore, legitimate government palliative programmes or cash transfer initiatives are not conducted through random WhatsApp links requesting citizens’ bank account details via unofficial websites.

Verdict 

The claim that Governor Ademola Adeleke is giving out ₦65,000 to Nigerians in celebration of his birthday through the circulating WhatsApp links is FALSE.