By Bose
Kindly share:
The woman at the centre of a viral video showing a man widely believed to be former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, massaging her feet has dismissed claims that the footage was artificially generated, insisting the clip is real.
The video, which surfaced on social media on Tuesday, sparked instant controversy. It shows a man resembling Oshiomhole in a relaxed, intimate setting, chatting casually with a woman whose legs rest on his lap as he massages her feet. In the early hours of the backlash, the woman was wrongly identified as Lara Fortes, wife of the senator representing Edo North, further fuelling public outrage.
The woman has since been identified as Leshaan Dagama, a South African lifestyle influencer and adult content creator. Reports indicate Dagama initially posted the clip on her TikTok page before deleting it shortly afterwards, but not before it had been widely downloaded and reshared.
As the footage spread, Nigerians took to social media with a mix of anger, satire and disbelief. Many criticised what they saw as a display of indulgent comfort by a political elite figure at a time of severe economic hardship, rising food prices and widespread poverty. Others mocked the video against the backdrop of Oshiomhole’s recent controversial comment suggesting that Nigerians were now complaining because “food prices are becoming too cheap.”
Faced with mounting backlash, Oshiomhole’s camp moved quickly to disown the video. His media aide, Oseni Momodu, released a statement dismissing the footage as a “poorly crafted AI-generated” fabrication. The statement accused bloggers and online platforms of spreading unverified content, described the episode as cyberbullying, and warned that steps were being taken to identify those responsible for producing and circulating the clip. The public was also urged to verify information before making allegations against public officials.
But that narrative quickly unraveled.
Hours later, Dagama responded directly via her Instagram story, bluntly rejecting the AI claim. In a sarcastic post, she wrote: “Video wasn’t AI but okay believe your senator,” punctuating the remark with a smiling emoji that suggested indifference to the political storm.
She had earlier addressed the backlash in a separate post, redirecting public anger away from herself and squarely at the politician involved. “Your senator is the problem. Go be mad at him not me,” she wrote.
With Dagama’s public rebuttal, the controversy has shifted from questions of morality and optics to credibility itself, leaving Oshiomhole’s denial under renewed scrutiny as the video continues to circulate and provoke debate across Nigeria’s political and social space.
