{"id":23910,"date":"2025-08-11T13:55:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=23910"},"modified":"2025-08-11T13:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:55:40","slug":"viral-video-showing-a-list-of-nigerians-on-death-row-in-saudi-arabia-not-recent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/viral-video-showing-a-list-of-nigerians-on-death-row-in-saudi-arabia-not-recent\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral video showing a list of Nigerians on death row in Saudi Arabia, not recent\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: An X user shared a video<\/a> claiming that Saudi Arabia has released the names of Nigerians sentenced to death over drug-related offences.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: Misleading! Reports from credible media outlets revealed that the names mentioned were already sentenced to death in 2019 and not recently, as portrayed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For decades, ethnic intolerance and disunity among major ethnic groups in the country have proliferated, leading to the spread<\/a> of ethnocentric hate speech and bigotry. Social media has become a stable tool for such ethnic-targeted disinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ethnic and language diversity has also made it easier for toxic ethno-aligned narratives to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, an X user \u201c@Uchechukwubiaf4<\/a>\u201d shared a reaction video<\/a> claiming that the government of Saudi Arabia has released the names of Nigerians sentenced to death over drug deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-minute, 26-second video shows a lady giving details of the information while showing slides of Nigerians supposedly sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the lady in the video claimed no Igbo names were on the list. She emphasised this point with slides of screenshots from publications by Channels TV and The Cable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post’s engagement statistics revealed that it had generated about 55,000 views, 4120 likes, 1690 reposts, 668 bookmarks, and 130 quotes as of Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scouring through the comment section, many users questioned the post’s validity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, Jimoh Idhola Lawal, Ibrahim Chiroma, Aliu Muhammad, and Kuburat Ibrahim are Yoruba names? @UnlimitedEniola<\/a> questioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another user, @Shola88710606<\/a>, commented, \u201cAll na Ibo that collected Nigerian passports in Yoruba names so  they are eligible for Saudi Visa and travel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doubt, @Elvist-Kline<\/a> asked, \u201cWhere did you get this info?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found similar posts on Facebook here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tribalistic nature of the post and the massive engagement generated made DUBAWA verify its authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA carried out a keyword search on the screenshot of the Channels TV report, which reads, \u201cSaudi Executions Soar To 17 In Three Days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search led us to a report<\/a> by the media outlet on Aug. 4, 2025, detailing a surge in the executions brewing from drug and terrorism related offences, with no mention of any names of executed individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a Google Reverse Image Search on the screenshot of TheCable\u2019s report featured in the video led us to a similar post shared on Facebook<\/a> by Oriental Times Nigeria in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We conducted a keyword search, which led us to the original report by The Cable<\/a> in 2019 titled \u201cFULL LIST: \u201923 Nigerians\u2019 on death row in Saudi Arabia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, the individuals were arrested for possessing banned substances between 2016 and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport, Madinah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following their arrest, these individuals were sentenced to death for contravening the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Control Law, which is punishable by death in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nation and Daily Nigerian also reported similar developments in 2019, as seen here<\/a> and here<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA’s research found that the claim is misleading. The report referenced was from an incident that happened in April 2019, involving Nigerians convicted over drug-related transactions in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: An X user shared a video claiming that Saudi Arabia has released the names of Nigerians sentenced to death over drug-related offences. Verdict: Misleading! Reports from credible media outlets revealed that the names mentioned were already sentenced to death in 2019 and not recently, as portrayed. Full Text  For decades, ethnic intolerance and disunity among major ethnic groups in the country have proliferated, leading to the spread of ethnocentric hate speech and bigotry. Social media has become a stable tool for such ethnic-targeted disinformation. The ethnic and language diversity has also made it easier for toxic ethno-aligned narratives to spread. On Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, an X user \u201c@Uchechukwubiaf4\u201d shared a reaction video claiming that the government of Saudi Arabia has released the names of Nigerians sentenced to death over drug deals. The two-minute, 26-second video shows a lady giving details of the information while showing slides of Nigerians supposedly sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the lady in the video claimed no Igbo names were on the list. She emphasised this point with slides of screenshots from publications by Channels TV and The Cable. The post’s engagement statistics revealed that it had generated about 55,000 views, 4120 likes, 1690 reposts, 668 bookmarks, and 130 quotes as of Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. Scouring through the comment section, many users questioned the post’s validity.   \u201cSo, Jimoh Idhola Lawal, Ibrahim Chiroma, Aliu Muhammad, and Kuburat Ibrahim are Yoruba names? @UnlimitedEniola questioned. Another user, @Shola88710606, commented, \u201cAll na Ibo that collected Nigerian passports in Yoruba names so  they are eligible for Saudi Visa and travel.\u201d In doubt, @Elvist-Kline asked, \u201cWhere did you get this info?\u201d We found similar posts on Facebook here and here. The tribalistic nature of the post and the massive engagement generated made DUBAWA verify its authenticity. Verification DUBAWA carried out a keyword search on the screenshot of the Channels TV report, which reads, \u201cSaudi Executions Soar To 17 In Three Days.\u201d The search led us to a report by the media outlet on Aug. 4, 2025, detailing a surge in the executions brewing from drug and terrorism related offences, with no mention of any names of executed individuals. Meanwhile, a Google Reverse Image Search on the screenshot of TheCable\u2019s report featured in the video led us to a similar post shared on Facebook by Oriental Times Nigeria in 2019. We conducted a keyword search, which led us to the original report by The Cable in 2019 titled \u201cFULL LIST: \u201923 Nigerians\u2019 on death row in Saudi Arabia.\u201d  According to the report, the individuals were arrested for possessing banned substances between 2016 and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport, Madinah. Following their arrest, these individuals were sentenced to death for contravening the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Control Law, which is punishable by death in the country. The Nation and Daily Nigerian also reported similar developments in 2019, as seen here and here, respectively. Conclusion  DUBAWA’s research found that the claim is misleading. The report referenced was from an incident that happened in April 2019, involving Nigerians convicted over drug-related transactions in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,3812,3815,123],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[4055],"class_list":["post-23910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-headline","category-homepage","category-mainstream"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-6dE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4055,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"miracle-akubuo","display_name":"Miracle Akubuo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/handcuff-image.jpg?fit=1062%2C531&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23912,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23910\/revisions\/23912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23910"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=23910"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}