CLAIM: Footage depicts late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s residence as abandoned and in disrepair. VERDICT: False. The circulating video is an AI-generated deepfake. FULL STORY A video concerning the late Nigerian senator, Ifeanyi Ubah, has been widely shared on social media platforms, attracting considerable public attention and eliciting various responses. Senator Ifeanyi Ubah was a Nigerian
CLAIM: Footage depicts late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s residence as abandoned and in disrepair.
VERDICT: False. The circulating video is an AI-generated deepfake.
FULL STORY
A video concerning the late Nigerian senator, Ifeanyi Ubah, has been widely shared on social media platforms, attracting considerable public attention and eliciting various responses.
Senator Ifeanyi Ubah was a Nigerian politician and businessman who represented the Anambra South senatorial district as a senator from 2019 until his death on 26 July 2024.
A 23-second TikTok clip posted by Nigerian skit maker ‘Classy Jesters’ on August 12, 2025, shows a dusty compound with a tall white building, several cars, and an indoor office where a cobweb-covered photograph of the late senator is displayed. The caption reads, “What’s the purpose of life’s vanities?”
On August 13, 2025, NDR FactHub sourced the identical video from WhatsApp, where it was being shared alongside assertions that the late senator’s residence is now vacant, deteriorated, and in disrepair. The footage subsequently appeared on Facebook and other platforms, prompting discussions regarding themes of mortality, affluence, and legacy.
The circulation of the video has led to questions regarding its accuracy and whether the building depicted is owned by the late senator.
VERIFICATION
Analysis reveals multiple signs that the video likely does not accurately depict Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s residence.
To begin with, the clip does not supply any verifiable information to confirm that the depicted building is owned by the late senator. Although the photograph shown bears similarity to widely available images of Senator Ubah, such portraits are commonly displayed in premises associated with political figures and therefore do not provide a reliable basis for identification.
Furthermore, conducting reverse image searches and comparing the footage with verified images of Senator Ubah’s residence highlights significant architectural discrepancies, raising questions regarding the authenticity of the video. The absence of contextual information, along with the video’s emotive presentation and timing, indicates a possibility that the clip has been misrepresented to evoke an emotional or viral response rather than to provide accurate documentation.
Despite photos and stories circulating online, there is currently no reliable evidence indicating that the property is abandoned or in a state of disrepair.
NDR FactHub found that the circulating video was AI-generated and falsely associated with the late Senator’s estate.
The video was subjected to verification using Deepware, an AI video detection tool, returning with an 85% AI-generated possibility result.
The dissemination of this misleading video appears to be driven by factors such as the pursuit of sensationalism, misinformation, efforts to achieve widespread circulation, and elements of socio-philosophical commentary.
The original TikTok post, accompanied by the caption “what’s the purpose of life’s vanities?”, suggests that the content was intended to provoke reflection on the fleeting nature of wealth and status rather than to provide fact-based information.
When shared on WhatsApp and Facebook, the video lost its context and was presented as fact to attract attention.
Content creators and social media users often use emotional stories about public figures to attract traffic, gain followers, or start viral conversations.
These narratives often reflect public views on elites, wealth inequality, and fleeting material success, increasing their chances of being shared without verification.
