A photograph has been shared hundreds of times in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts with claims that it shows Nigerian movie star Funke Akindele Bello picking up waste in the street as a punishment for throwing a party during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The post links to a publication on the radio station’s website,\xa0 headlined: "Actress Funke Akindele Clears Rubbish On The Streets As She Commences Her 14 Days Community Service Sentence".\xa0Many of the comments suggest viewers believed the claim to be true., Illegal party, "Akindele was sentenced to 14 days\xa0community service on April 6, 2020, for hosting her husband’s birthday party at their Lagos residence, going against government rules on\xa0social distancing. The couple are\xa0the first to be tried under the new\xa0law\xa0to combat COVID-19, which has infected at least 158 people in Lagos, the epicentre\xa0of the pandemic in Nigeria.", Nollywood Actress, Funke Akindele Bello and her husband have been sentenced to 14 days Community Service in addition to a fine of N100,000 each, by Ogba Magistrate Court, for social distancing contravention@jidesanwoolu#LagosAgainstCovid19\n\t\t..Read More.. https://t.co/mcD1Tz7UTi pic.twitter.com/2ZsV6abRAT, Both Akindele and her husband Abdulrasheed Bello\xa0were fined 100,000 naira ($261) each and told to self-isolate for\xa014 days in addition to the community service, a Lagos court\xa0ruled., Photo does not show actress, In Nigeria, the claim that the photograph of a woman collecting waste showed Akindele was published on “My State News”, a website that has previously been\xa0debunked by AFP here and here., Posts found here and here on Facebook, here and here on Twitter, and here and here on Instagram were all shared with a similar claim., However, the photo has been circulating on social media since at least January 2018, nearly two years before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic., A Google reverse image search for the photo led AFP to several versions of the image, including this earliest version posted on\xa0Twitter on January 12, 2020 by\xa0Cleaner Lagos, an initiative of the Lagos state ministry of environment., The first batch of Community Sanitation Workers have commenced work in selected areas of Lagos state.\n\t\tUnder the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, 27,500 people will be employed as Community Sanitation Workers who will sweep the streets of Lagos. #CleanerLagos #CSWsOfLagos pic.twitter.com/KFPrf2VshS, The picture features among four images\xa0as showing the first group of Community Sanitation Workers who commenced work in selected areas of Lagos state. “Under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, 27,500 people will be employed as Community Sanitation Workers who will sweep the streets of Lagos,” the tweet reads in part., There are no reports from major Nigerian news outlets that the movie star has begun her community service., Lagos and Nigeria’s capital Abuja, as well as Ogun state, are on lockdown after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on March 29, 2020, ordered the “cessation of all movement” to contain the coronavirus outbreak., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This is a photo of a waste management officer that's been circulating since 2018 | AFP Fact Check