Kogi State's Land Mass Not Bigger Than South East, Fact Check

During an appearance on Arise TV on Thursday, Kingsley Fanwo, a representative from Kogi State, claimed that the state's land mass is greater than that of the entire South East region. He argued that this vast land area complicates security efforts in Kogi, which shares borders with about ten other states.

However, a fact-check by Daily Trust using the "Area of Nigeria by State" dataset from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) contradicts this assertion. The dataset indicates that the combined land area of the five South East states—Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo—totals 2,898,700 hectares, while Kogi State's area is 2,774,700 hectares.

This shows that the South East exceeds Kogi by 124,000 hectares. Thus, the claim made by Fanwo is deemed false based on official data from the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation.