Claim: A Facebook page, Issiaka the blogger, shared a video claiming it shows kidnapped persons crying and shouting for help to depict how terrorists treat Nigerians.
Verdict: Misleading. The video is not recent, but is from the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack.
Full Text
On Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, a Facebook page, Issiaka the blogger, shared a two-minute, 53-second video showing a group of kidnapped persons crying and shouting for help in an open space resembling a forest, while their captors tortured them.
The video (archived here) was captioned, “BREAKING NEWS: This is how peaceful Nigerians are being treated by terrorists in Nigeria. African Union needs to help us.”
A voice-over accompanying the footage discusses kidnapping as a lucrative business in Nigeria, the alleged failure of security agencies to tackle kidnappers and terrorists, and what it describes as government laxity in addressing insecurity.
Photographs of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, former Inspector-General of Police Usman Baba, President Bola Tinubu, and armed terrorists are also inserted at different points in the video. These images, alongside the narration, present the footage as evidence of Nigeria’s current security situation.
As of Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, the post had attracted 534 likes, 783 comments, 566 shares and 80 bookmarks.
Reacting to the post, Katlego Daniel Moripa wrote, “Help me understand, isn’t Nigeria 🇳🇬 the Giant of Africa, or is it just a self-proclaimed title?” Ephraim Kaizer said, “Nigeria is not a country,” while Cellose McLammar stated, “This must stop. Pls engage Donald Trump.”
Given the post’s significant engagement, the claim’s security-related nature, and the possibility of misleading viewers, DUBAWA sought to establish when and where the video was originally recorded and whether it depicts a recent incident as claimed.
Verification
DUBAWA began by examining the video for clues that could help identify the people or incident depicted.
The two-minute, 53-second clip contains several scenes of abducted persons crying, but neither the caption nor the narration clearly identified the people being tortured or provided details of when and where the footage was recorded.
DUBAWA conducted a reverse-image search using key frames from the video to trace its origin. The searches returned several matching results, including YouTube and Instagram videos, Facebook posts, and reports by news organisations, with the footage traced to July 2022.
One match was a Facebook post published by Sahara Reporters on July 24, 2022. The post shared four images of the victims being tortured and was captioned, “VIDEO: Terrorists Flog Passengers Abducted From Nigeria’s Abuja-Kaduna Train.”
DUBAWA also found a July 24, 2022 report by RipplesNigeria titled, “Abductors of Abuja-Kaduna train passengers release new video showing victims’ torture.” The report stated that the passengers’ abductors released a new video showing the torture of victims who remained in captivity.
According to the report, the victims were subjected to severe beatings by their captors, who were reportedly angry that the government had not met their demands. The report further stated that the victims could be heard pleading with the Nigerian government and the international community to intervene.
Arise News also published a report on July 24, 2022, titled, “Terrorists Torture Abducted Kaduna Train Passengers, Threaten Buhari, El-Rufai, Governors, Senators.” The report included a video similar to the claimant’s.
Recall that on March 28, 2022, terrorists attacked a Kaduna-bound passenger train, killing eight people and abducting 63 others.
DUBAWA also found that TVC News had published videos on YouTube (here and here) showing the abducted passengers being tortured by their captors. These additional matches provide further evidence that the footage predates the 2026 Facebook post.
The evidence from the reverse-image search and the contemporaneous media reports therefore establishes that the footage is not new. Although the current Facebook video has been repackaged with a narration about Nigeria’s present security situation and photographs of current and former public officials, the central footage of the victims being tortured was recorded and circulated in 2022.
Conclusion
The claim that the video shows how terrorists are currently torturing kidnapped Nigerians is misleading. DUBAWA traced the footage to the March 28, 2022, Abuja-Kaduna train attack and kidnapping.
This fellowship is implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union.