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| - A video showing some suspected criminals being paraded by security operatives has surfaced online with a claim that it shows the bandits arrested by men of the Nigerian Army on Sunday, March 10, 2024 at the Kontagora forest in Niger State.
An X user, @AlexIgwe15, posted the claim with a caption that read:
“The forest of kotangora in niger state was ransacked yesterday.. see the numbers of bandits brought out from the forest.”
The claim has garnered over 27,000 views, more than 400 reposts, with over 200 likes and 179 comments as of March 15, 2024.
READ: Nigeria did NOT approve the cessation of South eastern states!
Another X user, @diisa2002, also posted the claim with a similar caption thus:
“The forest of kotangora in niger state was ransacked yesterday.. These are the band!ts brought out from the forest.”
The claim has generated more than 300 reposts and over 400 likes as of March 15, 2024.
CLAIM
Video shows bandits arrested by the Nigerian Army in Niger state on March 10, 2024.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
The FactCheckHub tracked the source of the video to a TikTok post by a user, @msarki.com on August 23, 2023. However, the user did not provide any context.
READ ALSO: Is Adesina right about Boko Haram being dislodged from Sambisa Forest?
The FactCheckHub checked the X handle and website of Nigerian Army and there was no information released by the Army that is related to the claim recently. The news was also not reported by any credible media platform.
Further checks show that the video has been repeatedly used to depict an incident that happened in Niger state in the past.
For instance, a Facebook page, De Beast Media posted the claim with a similar caption on August 30, 2023. The same was posted again by an X account with the same narrative on September 13, 2023.
However, findings showed that the clip originated from Taraba State where over 3,500 illegal miners were arrested in August 2023 in Dogon Yatsu forest, Bali Local Government Area of the state, by the special task force for illegal mining and deforestation. A similar version of the video was uploaded here by TVC.
The state government said the illegal miners were from different parts of the country as well as from other neighbouring countries, including Mali, Senegal and Chad.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows terrorists arrested by the Nigerian Army in Kotangora forest on Sunday, March 10, 2024 is MISLEADING; findings revealed that the video is an old video which originated from Taraba state.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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