A Facebook blogger, IGBO NDI OMA TV, posted a video claiming that Nigerian police officers were going from house to house in Enugu searching for IPOB members.
FALSE
Full Text
On September 4, a Facebook blogger IGBO NDI OMA TV posted a one minute, 19 seconds video as seen here with the caption, ‘Nigerian police on house to house search, for IPOB members in Enugu !!!!.
Starting with the civil war that lasted for 30 months, between 1967 and 1970, the people of South-Eastern Nigeria have continually agitated to secede from the Nigerian federation, their reason being the marginalization of the region.
To achieve this cause, different groups have over time sprouted and agitated for secession and establishment of an independent state named Biafra. One of these groups is the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), headed by Nnamdi Kanu.
However, despite demands, the Nigerian government has refused to let the region secede and has since proscribed the group and tagged it a terrorist organisation
Following this development, the supporters of this secessionist group constantly employ protests, solidarity activities, social media outcry by posting gruesome pictures of alleged Biafra casualties and other such devices to agitate for their secession.
It is against this backdrop that a pro-Biafra Facebook blogger IGBO NDI OMA TV posted a video claiming a footage of Nigerian Police officers moving from house to house in Enugu – a Southeastern state searching for IPOB members
The post which was put up by this blogger barely two weeks after the Nigerian police clashed with IPOB members in Emene, Enugu garnered over 9000 views, 323 shares and comments.
Verification
Reading through the comment section, some viewers rebuked the blogger, dismissing the post as fake and stating that the incident did not take place in Nigeria but Cameroon.
Using Keyframes video analysis tool on the Fake News Debunker by Invid Keyframes, nothing much could be ascertained owing to the poor quality of the footage, so one could not tell exactly what country the policemen belonged to.
Several reverse image searches returned abstract images not related to the subject and thus did not show any inclinations that such an incident happened in Enugu.
Also, nothing in the video suggests that the incident happened in Enugu or anywhere in Nigeria. The person that took the footage did not give any narrative to the video or where it occurred.
When Dubawa reached out to the Public Relations Officer of the Enugu State Police Command, Daniel Ndukwe, He confirmed that no such incident took place in Enugu.
“There was never any time such a thing happened in Enugu, Never! There was never a time the police went round picking IPOB members. The person that posted that is just busy telling lies to people” He said.
Conclusion
The post is fake. The blogger’s claim that police Nigerian officers were on an operation to arrest IPOB members in Enugu is false.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with Sparkling 92.3 FM to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in Journalism and enhance Media Literacy in the Country.
Biafra Movement has become your nightmare…You will die of restricting public awareness and fact-checking of evil agendas against BIAFRANS by Nigeria Government…BIAFRA is a movement that existed before you and will continue to exist after you have gone…I don’t support fake news but your evil and terrorist actions against Biafrans will come back and hit & your family beyond remedial solutions.