Claim
A Facebook user, Pelumi Olajengbesi, claim that unauthorised soldiers invaded Ijebu Ijesa, arrested Accord members during voting in Oriade Local Government Area of Osun State.
Similarly,The Facebook user, who is the spokesperson for the Accord Party in Osun State, also released an official statement to this effect.
Why We Checked
The fact-check became necessary because of the importance of the actors in the claim – the soldiers and the voters who are also members of the Accord Party. Also, the claim might undermine the credibility of the poll if political party members are restricted from voting.
Halt Fake conducted a search through Google reverse image and discovered that the video footage shows a white hilux with a siren without any reflection that the men coming down from the hilux are soldiers.
The video footage also did not show disruption to voters or any party members or any form of harassment as alleged.
Also, the content was gaining traction, with over 347 likes, 56 comments and 112 shares.
Verification
The 8 minutes video accompanied with Accord party press release signed by the party’s spokesperson, Pelumi Olajengbesi, reflected white hilux with a siren and some men in black uniform coming down from the hilux.
A Google search of the video shows that the video has garnered 38k views.
Half Fake checked through Google lens and there is no publicly available evidence to back this claim.
We also checked the public domain of the police, Army, NSCDC for any statement regarding the claim. Also, there is no report of this on any credible media outlet.
Furthermore, we tried to assess the uniform to determine if they were soldiers or police officials, but the resolution of the image was not good enough to determine the security agency in particular. .
Screenshot from the video showing the security operatives
Verdict – Misleading
The video posted and claimed that unauthorised soldiers were arrested according to members does not have enough evidence to show the claim that there was an invasion by soldiers and that anyone was arrested.
The video claim is insufficient and there is no substantial evidence in the video to show Accord members were arrested in Ijebu Ijesa in Oriade Local Government of Osun state.
Conclusion
The video showing some men in black uniform coming down from a white Hilux does not represent the fact that they are soldiers invading Ijebu Ijesa and arresting accord members.
Without any official statement from the police, Army and other verifiable sources confirming identities, the claim remains misleading.
