Fact-Check: Is Atiku the Owner of Tiger Skyscraper Estate in Dubai?
Claim: A viral WhatsApp video which was also widely shared on TikTok and Twitter claims Atiku is the owner of an expansive skyscraping estate seen in the clip.
Full Text: the clip which had a female voiceover in the background and an accompanying text states as follows:
“The buildings you see here in Dubai belong to Atiku Abubakar but the sad reality is that no Nigerian is employed in any of the buildings doing anything.
“Of course we can now understand Obasanjo when he said that the money Atiku looted can feed 400 million Nigerians for 400 years.
“We cannot be fooled more than once BE WISE! Nigerians,” it concluded.
Verification: using the InVid Metadata tool, PRNigeria extracted relevant information about the given data and the result shows that the video may have been technically tampered with as the creation date reads, “Fri Jan 01, 1904, 00:13:35 GMT+0013 (West Africa Standard Time).”
Similarly, using the same tool, the coordinates of the clip was missing hence its origin could not be geolocated. PRNigeria, therefore, deployed the jeffrey metadata viewer to extract the coordinates but it again proved abortive, however it revealed the original IP address as 197.210.53.88.
Using a web based IP address lookup https://whatismyipaddress.com/ PRNigeria traced the original location which revealed that the clip originated from Abuja the Federal Capital Territory with Latitude: 9.05735 (9° 3′ 26.46″ N) and Longitude: 7.48976 (7° 29′ 23.14″ E) as seen in the image below:
PRNigeria then used the web based tool ip2location to derive the specific coordinates which was reveals as 9.057350, 7.489760 as seen in the image below:
While using google earth, PRNigeria tracked the location of the coordinates which reveals an unmarked place somewhere opposite the “National Library Complex Project” along Sani Abach Way as seen in the image below:
This proves that the impression given by the voice-over that it was filming live from Dubai in front of the purported building is not true.
However, to verify the authenticity of the claim that they were Atiku’s building, using web-based portal https://ezgif.com/ PRNigeria extracted keyframes of the video and used the images to run a google, bing and Yandex reverse image search but there was no concrete result except for similar architecture like the Nasser Rashid Lootah Building, on 40, Al Badaa Street, in Dubai.
However, though blurred, PRNigeria observed that the building identity was a Tiger Head artistic form and the Inscription “TIGER” was written on it in both English and Arabic.
PRNigeria then ran a google search of the keyword, “Tiger Head Building Dubai” and result show that it is an expanse estate of apartment properties with the same Tiger head artistic form and inscription located in various areas in Sharja and Dubai with the following address “Al Nahda St – Al Qusais Industrial Area – Al Qusais Industrial Area 3 – Sharjah – United Arab Emirates,” belonging to a firm “TIGER Group.”
Further keyword google search of the owner of the firm revealed on LinkedIn that it to Mr. Walid M. Mohammad who is also the Group’s Chairman.
It revealed that Mr. Mohammad, was committed not only to succeeding but also to contributing to the UAE’s economic growth.
“Over more than two decades of continuous service across the construction, industrial and services industries, Tiger has become a prominent name in developing communities,” it boasts.
Conclusion: The claim that Atiku is the owner of Tiger Skyscraper Estate in Dubai is therefore FALSE.
By PRNigeria
