Did a Nigerian burn periwigs after tribunal ruling as claimed by Charly Boy?

Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa popularly known as Charly Boy posted a thirty-eight-second video on his verified Twitter account with the caption “How pathetic, a lawyer burnt his wig to say goodbye to the practice. Nigeria Judiciary has slaughtered justice.”

In the video, a man was seen burning wigs worn by lawyers and judges in court.

This is coming after the court gave its verdict on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

Verification

To verify the claim, fact-checkers at Daily Trust took screenshots from the video and searched the images using Google Reverse Image search and the result revealed that the video was shared in March 2022 in Jamaica.

The Jamaican set ablaze three wigs because he believed they shouldn’t be worn by black people damaged by those who invented wearing of wigs in the 14th Century.

One of the wigs belonged to him as he was called to bar in 1963 and served as a judge in The Bahamas.  The story was published by the Jamaica Gleaner Newspaper.

Background

Charly Boy is an entertainer in Nigeria who studied law in the United States. He is also the son of former Supreme Court Justice, Chukwudifu Oputa.

In one of his tweets, he had said, “They don’t make them like my father anymore.”

He has shared many controversial tweets in recent times.

In a recent post he shared, he said, “Oh Lord how can we be praying in Nigeria and You are answering prayers in Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.”

These countries recently experienced coups.

However, in the just concluded elections, he supported and still supports the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.

Verdict: False

Conclusion

Based on verifiable information, we can confirm that the video shared by Charly Boy claiming a Nigerian man burned judicial wigs is false and misleading. The video was from 2022 and happened in Jamaica.

This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)