Photo shows armed men. Source: DW
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Full Text
Insecurity has, over the years, risen to be a serious plague facing Nigeria. From the terrorist crisis and kidnapping spree rocking the northern parts of the country to the sit-at-home orders and maiming by unknown gunmen in the eastern region, the nation has not been at peace.
A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that nearly 700,000 people were killed in the country between May 2023 and April 2024 alone.
In this listicle, DUBAWA provides a synopsis of false information on security and conflict issues in Nigeria, revealing the veracity behind each claim.
- Nigerian Army has only Islamic training school
With the success of the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket presented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general election, which had continued to breed a debate around religious intolerance, Simon Ekpa, a factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), claimed the Nigerian Army has established a school for Islamic Affairs but does not have such for Christians.
As seen here, we fact-checked this by conducting advanced searches on Google. We also contacted Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director of Army public relations, who said it was a false claim as the Nigerian Army has provided training schools for both religions.
- Nigerian government delivers food and weapons to bandits
Leveraging on the ground that the activists of armed bandits continue to impact the country severely, an X user alleged that the Nigerian government dispatched a helicopter to deliver food and ammunition to Bello Turji, a notorious bandit leader in Nigeria, and his associates.
This claim caused quite a stir on social media, particularly on X, where it was made. However, we discovered that the video that accompanied the claim belonged to African Parks, a nonprofit group on a rescue mission in Chinko, and the event occurred in the Central African Republic, not Nigeria.
In fact, the helicopter was being used to support personnel evacuation and rescue, not to supply materials to bandits, as implied in the post.
Read the full details here.
- Proscribed IPOB group killed Nigerian soldiers
Another claim linked to insecurity in 2024 is the claim that Simon Ekpa uploaded an image showing the corpses of Nigerian soldiers allegedly eliminated during a deadly encounter with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
After a digital analysis of the image through a Google Reverse Image search, we found that the image posted by Mr Ekpa has no connection with Nigeria or its military.
It was from a face-off between soldiers and terrorists at a military outpost in the Savanes region of northern Togo. Also, the narrative also used to portray the incident is misleading.
Read the full story here.
- Soldiers beat up young man in retaliatory move
Reacting to the killing of about five soldiers in May 2024 in Abia State, a Nigerian posted a video purportedly showing angry soldiers beating up a young man in the state as a form of retaliation.
We traced the original source of the video to 2019, and the Nigerian Army denied the involvement of its officers in it.
Sagir Musa, the acting director of Army Public Relations, explained that the camouflage style worn by the soldiers in the video was no longer in use.
Click here for the full story.
- Lakurawa terror group sprung up under President Tinubu
As Nigeria tries to wade off its agelong history of banditry, an X user claimed that the Lakurawa terror group started under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Our findings, however, reveal that the group had been in existence as far back as 2018, long before Mr Tinubu took over leadership as president of Nigeria.
Finally, we spoke with James Barnett, a research fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, who debunked the claim that Lakurawa was formed this year.
Read more here.
