Picture of the Nigerian Air Force. Photo credit: Premium Times.
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Claim: An X user shared a video of armed men walking along a road, claiming it shows jihadists shouting “Allahu Akbar” while taking over Nigerian villages unchallenged.
Verdict: False. The video is not from Nigeria and does not show anyone shouting “Allahu Akbar.” It originates from an unrelated conflict in Oromia, Ethiopia, and has no connection to Nigerian security matters.
Full Text
On Aug. 20, 2026, an X user, Falana Muyiwa (@Muyiwa66), shared a one-minute, 23-second video showing a group of armed, uniformed men walking in a single file along a rural road. The clip carried two text overlays which read: “But where is Nigerian Air Force?” and “They have taken over our land.”
The post’s caption reads, “I keep asking where the Nigerian Air Force is? How can all these Jih@dists be moving freely, shouting all@h akbar and taking over Nigerian villages.”
The post, archived here, had garnered roughly 30,000 views, 93 comments, 486 reposts, and 610 likes as of Aug. 22, 2026, up from about 4,400 views, 8 comments, 47 reposts, and 78 likes within hours of its initial posting, indicating rapid and sustained spread.
The claim found an immediate and receptive audience in the replies, many of which treated the video as confirmation of state failure and used it as a springboard for broader, unrelated grievances.
Onyebuchi Nwaiwu (@NWAIWUJr) wrote, “They won’t attack them because these terrorists are their sons and brothers. They only know how to attack and blackmail IPOB/BIAFRANS,” tying the claim to the #BiafraReferendumNow campaign.
The Njaba Times (@njaba_times) went further, alleging, “Nigeria Air Force and Nigeria Military are Members of the Fulani Herdsmen and ISWAP. Nigeria is officially a Fulani State, signed and Given Away by the late Buhari. If you don’t like this arrangement, then you must rise up and defend yourselves and your families.”
MindGame (@KokoEdem) commented, “Wait until we have a Government that has the people at heart; then you will see the true might of the Nigerian force. For now, we have no Government.”
Nana Obiri II (@NanaobiriII) used the post to advance an unrelated, unsubstantiated claim that links the video to religion and geopolitics. Nana wrote, “Saudi Arabia taught them this Mohammed teachings Jihadist terrorism, then release them on African soil to convert Africans into Islam, so they can come to Hajj in Saudi Arabia every year to spend their money into Saudi economy.”
None of these replies questioned the video’s origin or authenticity. Instead, each treated it as settled fact and used it to advance separate grievances.
Given the post’s framing of an active jihadist advance inside Nigeria, its explicit implication of the Nigerian Air Force, its high engagement statistics and its potential to deepen public fear and distrust of the country’s security architecture, DUBAWA decided to verify the footage and the claim attached to it.
Verification
We first tested the specific claim embedded in the caption that the men can be heard “shouting all@h akbar.” We reviewed the video frame by frame and listened closely to the audio, and at no point did the men shout “Allahu Akbar” or any other chant. The only sounds audible are ambient noise and footsteps.
We then conducted reverse image searches across multiple video frames to trace its earliest known online appearance.
The earliest instance we identified was a Facebook post by the Afaan Oromoo-language page Jl Kaayyoo Egeree on Jul. 31, 2026, three weeks before the claim surfaced on X.
The page’s caption, written in Oromo, described the footage as showing armed fighters after what it called a “victory” in the Alge Sachi district of the Ilu Abba Bora zone, in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region.
Ilu Abba Bora is a zone in western Oromia, Ethiopia, that borders the Benishangul-Gumuz Region and has seen recurring clashes linked to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an Ethiopian armed group with no presence in or connection to Nigeria.
The page’s language, terminology, and geographic references are specific to this Ethiopian context and carry no reference to Nigeria, jihadist groups, or any Nigerian security agency.
We found no evidence that the footage was filmed in Nigeria, no verified report of jihadist fighters seizing villages in the manner described, and no statement from the Nigerian Air Force, Defence Headquarters, or any other security agency responding to the claim.
Conclusion
The claim that jihadists are taking over Nigerian villages is false. The video is from an unrelated armed conflict in the Ilu Abba Bora zone of Oromia, Ethiopia.
This fellowship is implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union.
