A post circulating on X claims the United States government recently published a corruption investigation targeting former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar. The claim is false.
The post, published on July 25, 2026, and shared more than 300 times, includes four screenshots that its author presents as pages from a newly released US government report. The post suggests that Nigerian voters, heading into a 2027 election cycle, will "reject" Abubakar, who is the presidential candidate for the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
What the Document Actually Is
Details visible in the first screenshot tell a different story. The pages reference a "February 4, 2010 hearing" of the "Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations," confirming the document is more than 16 years old.
AFP Fact Check traced the screenshots to a 328-page PDF published by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, under the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, on July 12, 2010. The front page of that document matches the screenshots exactly.
The report examined how US professionals helped foreign politicians move large sums of money into American financial institutions. It identified four major anti-money laundering failures and named several individuals with political ties, including Abubakar, who served as Nigeria's vice president from 1999 to 2007.
It also named Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the family of former Gabonese president Omar Bongo, and Angolan government officials.
No Criminal Charges Resulted
The subcommittee found that more than $40 million in suspicious foreign funds moved into US bank accounts between 2000 and 2008 through Abubakar's wife, Jennifer Douglas, including $14 million sent to American University via offshore shell companies. Despite the findings, the report did not produce criminal charges against Abubakar at the time or at any point since.
The report was produced under the chairmanship of Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who led the subcommittee from 2007 to 2015. Levin died on July 29, 2021. The current chairman of the subcommittee is Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who took over in January 2025 after Republicans secured a majority in the 119th Congress.
Why the Post Is Circulating Now
The timing of the post appears tied to recent political activity around Abubakar. He hired a US-based lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., to manage his public relations and target President Bola Tinubu's campaign.
The firm drew attention to decades-old US Department of Justice documents linked to Tinubu and an alleged drug-dealing investigation from the late 1980s and early 1990s. That renewed scrutiny prompted counterclaims from Tinubu supporters, including the misleading posts about Abubakar.
Some commenters on the X post appeared to accept it as genuine, with one writing "It's 100% genuine!" and another saying it "says a lot about the leaders Nigeria produce."
Tinubu Backs US Request on Drug Investigation Records
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that President Tinubu filed a notice of joinder backing a 10-day extension request to delay the release of FBI and DEA drug records. A Washington lobbying firm hired by Atiku Abubakar published details of Tinubu's court filing and the judge's swift response. The case stems from 12 FOIA requests filed in 2022 and 2023 seeking records from a Chicago heroin ring investigation in the 1990s.
