An illustration showing jungle justice. Photo Source: Amnesty International.
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Claim: A Facebook user claims Fulani men attacked an 18-seater bus conveying Igbos returning to the East.
Verdict: Misleading! Evidence gathered by DUBAWA shows that the images have been online since 2020 and 2023, long before the mob incident in Edo State. Moreover, no media outlet has reported a reprisal attack on the Igbo since the Edo lynching incident.
Full Text
On Friday, March 28, 2025, 16 persons alleged to have been kidnappers and Hausa herdsmen were lynched to death in the Uromi community in the Southern State of Edo.
According to reports, the individuals were en route to Kano and travelling in a commercial truck when local security stopped them. Upon searching the travellers, they uncovered guns, which riled a rather irate mob to round them up and take the law into their hands.
The incident occurred a few days before the Eid El Fitr celebrations.
Amidst concerns of a reprisal attack, a Facebook user, Elder Zege’orkwande, on Sunday, Mar. 30, 2025, shared three images of a burnt vehicle and claimed Fulani men attacked an 18-seater bus conveying Igbo passengers in Kano State back to the East.
The Facebook user with over 43,000 followers shared images of a charred bus with the caption;
“AGGRESSIVE RETALIATION: BREAKING An 18-seater bus carrying Igbo passengers was set on fïre in Kano. Panic has spread across the Igbo community in the state as Fulani men go on a rampage, attàcking and killing any Igbo they come across in retaliation for the killing carried out by Edo hunters.”
“Tragically, 18 Igbos lost their lives this morning while travelling back to the East. A violent Fulani mob ambushed their bus, set it ablaze, and left no survivors,” he further wrote.
As of Monday, March 31, 2025, the post had accumulated about 357 reactions, 245 comments, and 23 shares.
In the comment section, some users who believed the incident to be true anticipated such an attack, while others dismissed it as false.
“This scenario came to my mind the moment I came across that video yesterday. May their souls rest in peace. Bearing the consequences of other people’s actions,” Orinya Emma wrote.
Another user, Sewuese Orkuma, said, “This is not a good sign at all. And if care is not taken, this will not end soon.”
Strongly doubting the post, Elazar Ichenna wrote, “Old man like you follow dey report fake news and I think say u legit self.”
Meanwhile, similar claims were shared here, here, here, here, and here.
The contradicting comments and the possibility of a tribal conflict in the country, given the strained relationships between the tribes involved, made DUBAWA investigate the claim.
Verification
DUBAWA subjected the three pictures shared by the users to a Google Reverse Image Search to know their respective contexts.
When we analysed the first image, we came across a report that Punch newspaper published on Sept. 30, 2023. The news outlet reported an auto accident that involved a Toyota Hiace that got burnt, although its passengers had escaped unhurt.
DUBAWA noticed that the charred bus the claimant shared on Facebook was the exact vehicle in Punch’s report about an inferno in 2023.
We also found a video on Facebook that Punch posted on Sept. 30, 2023, showing a complete view of the vehicle involved in the accident. It bears a striking resemblance to the picture the claimant shared. Punch also shared the clip on its Instagram page.
We conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on the second image and found a report Punch published on Jan. 17, 2020. The news outlet narrated how a commercial bus conveying 19 passengers exploded in Ijebu-Ife on the Ore-Ijebu Ode-Sagamu Road in Ogun State.
DUBAWA noticed that Punch had included a picture of the commercial bus in the 2020 report, which is the burnt vehicle the Facebook claimant shared.
Channels also reported the same story on Jan. 16, 2020, and included similar images.
DUBAWA noticed that the third image shared by the Facebook claimant is the same as the first.
Furthermore, we checked for any report of an alleged reprisal attack on Igbos following the recent event but discovered that no reputable media outlet reported such an incident.
Conclusion
The claim is false. There are no reports of a reprisal attack on Igbos as a result of the lynching in Uromi. The pictures used to portray the claim are old and unrelated.
