A video has spread on WhatsApp claiming that sponsors of the #EndBadGovernmentInNigeria protests have handed guns to protesters. The 3 minutes 58 seconds video has been shared many times on WhatsApp since Monday, August 5, 2024, with the caption: “It’s a peaceful protest with guns shared by the sponsors to name (sic) FG a bad name.”
Screenshot of the image of the video on WhatsApp
The video showed a man who was being interrogated and filmed by unidentified men, presumably security personnel. The man who identified himself as Daniel was seen making a confessional statement about being engaged and armed with guns by a man identified as the Chairman of Uromi a local government in Edo State. Daniel confessed in the video that he and others were contracted to possibly disrupt a political rally.
The sharers of the video ostensibly shared the video in the light of the on-going nationwide protests in Nigeria which have been described with various tags like “End Hunger,” “EndBadGovernance” among others.
Verification
Upon sighting the video as shared on WhatsApp, we took a screenshot of a key frame and deployed the Google lens to check it out. The only result was found on a news blog, Afemai Reporters on Instagram. The news blog has 1,212 followers on Instagram.
Further checks show that the video was posted on July 25, 2024 on Instagram, with the caption: “Esan North East Chairman, empowering criminals with guns. Interesting days ahead.”
At the time of writing this report, the video had only three likes and two comments. It had been shared 13 times.
On the WhatsApp group where the video was shared, a member of the group also debunked it, stating that it was “long before the protest” and that it was “an issue of security with the accusation that LGA chair arms (sic) thugs in the name of vigilantes to deal with opponents.”
A group member debunked the claim
The video has not been found anywhere else at the time of filing this report.
Conclusion
The video was originally posted over one week before the current #EndBadGovernmentInNigeria protests and has no link with the on-going nationwide protest. It is therefore misleading.
