FACT-CHECK: Is video showing Fulani gunmen arriving Nigeria for mass killing genuine?

Claim: Breaking, BBC NEWS that fulani arrived in Nigeria from all other Africa countries to start mass killing in Nigeria.

Full Text

Over the years, insecurity has become the major headache of Nigeria, ravaging the country like a plague of locusts. Banditry and insurgency have been posing a security threat ravaging Nigeria, claiming several lives while displacing tens of thousands of people in the country.

On September 12 2024, an X user Attah Ejike @attahejike567 posted a 56-seconds video clip, showing large numbers of men moving around with arms and ammunition in an unidentified forest. The video was tagged with a caption that the terrorists shown were Fulanis who entered Nigeria from different parts of Africa in order to commence massacres in the country.

Within 24 hours, the post had amassed over 107,000 views, over 1,000 reposts, over 1,000 bookmarks, with over 180 comments.

@attamakuza said: “They will all be tamed.” Similarly, @Eberechukwumic1 commented: “God have mercy, why is the military not doing anything about it.”

On the other hand @Olokson Deminient remarked: This is an old video and the location is not even in Nigeria. Likewise, @YusufBuji noted: “Fake news.”

READ ALSO:FACT-CHECK: Was Tinubu’s son chased by protesters during a recent demonstration in Lagos as claimed by a content creator?

Due to the controversy in the comment section and the potential of the post to create panic and fear within the public, Ripples Nigeria decided to verify the claim to set the record straight.

Verification

Ripples Nigeria subjected the screenshot clips from the video to Google Reverse Image Search, and it showed that the video was revived, as a similar one had been online since 2018.

Google Lens showed that credible media platforms in Nigeria had earlier reported the police tagging the video to be manipulated and edited as seen here, and here.

Also, a comprehensive search was carried out on the BBC website from which the video was claimed to have been gotten from. And there was no such report found on the BBC website.

Conclusion

Fake! Findings by Ripples Nigeria showed that the claim that a video shows Fulanis from different countries in Africa arriving Nigeria is not recent. A similar video had been online since 2018.

By: Muheeb Mashood

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