FACT CHECK: Did US restrict entry to Wizkid for ‘assaulting’ Jada Pollock?

A viral video allegedly showing President Joe Biden imposing a ban on Wizkid, the Nigerian singer, from entering the United States is circulating on social media.

In the footage, the US president said the prohibition on the Afrobeats star became necessary after he “physically assaulted” Jada Pollock, his manager and lover.

“Nigerian artiste Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, has been suspended from coming to the USA for beating his girlfriend Jada in California,” Biden purportedly said in the video.

“Please all the immigration all over the US states should be aware of this.”

The 22-second video shared on May 18 on X (formerly Twitter) has been seen nearly 800,000 times, with over 4,500 likes, 761 retweets, and 656 bookmarks.

WIZKID AND JADA ‘ASSAULT’ SAGA

Wizkid and Jada met in 2012 and they became lovers. Jada is the singer’s manager and also the mother of his children.

In a post via her Instagram stories in July 2019, Jada allegedly claimed that the singer had been assaulting her for years.

The US-born talent manager alleged that Wizkid hit her multiple times during their relationship while announcing their split.

The 40-year-old said she would not be raising her children in an environment, which she described as “unhealthy”.

“From today, Ayo and I will no longer work together. I have been in an abusive relationship with him for years. Covering up for him time and time again and I am tired,” she allegedly claimed.

“Wiz continuously puts his hands on me, leaves me with bruises that I cover up from the world, including my friends and family.

“It often feels like we are at war in the same house. I have done all I can to keep this all together but from today, I let go.

“You can support someone as much as you can but at some point, you have to value yourself. I can’t raise my son in this kind of unhealthy environment.”

However, Pollock retracted her statement a few days later, stating her account was hacked.

“My phone was hacked in the late hours of Monday evening and my Instagram was compromised. I can guarantee that the statement written was not by my hand. I can only apologize for any confusion this may have caused. I have now recovered my account,” she wrote.

VERIFYING THE CLAIM 

Checks by TheCable Lifestyle revealed that the video was altered using Deepfake, an artificial intelligence-generated technology that mimics a person’s voice to sound like another.

Subjecting the video to critical observation, TheCable Lifestyle found that Biden’s lips movement was not in sync with his voice.

The president’s face looked gloomy, his eyelids were blinking inconsistently, there were unnecessary and untimely pauses, as well as a blurred background.

TheCable Lifestyle further analysed the video using Deepware, a deep fake detector, and discovered that it is 99 percent fake.

An online search also showed that no credible media platform published the video credited to the president of the United States.

Neither Wizkid nor Jada have come out to corroborate or deny the claim.

VERDICT

The video of Biden saying that Wizkid has been barred from coming to the US for assaulting Pollock is fake and AI-generated.