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Claim: VeryDarkMan, a parody account on X, shared an image of a lifeless farmer, claiming the farmer was attacked and killed by Fulani herdsmen.
Verdict: Misleading! DUBAWA’s findings reveal the post was not made by the popular Very Dark Man (VDM), and the image has been online since 2024, when herdsmen attacked the Eha Amufu community in Enugu.
Full Text
Since the gruesome murder of 16 Northern travellers in the Uromi Community in the Southern State of Edo, an image has been shared to show how Fulani have been attacking the South.
A parody account (@thatverydarkma1) posing as Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), shared the image of a lifeless farmer allegedly attacked and killed by Fulani herdsmen in the South.
“This is getting out of hand, to be honest. How can you, as a Fulani, go to someone’s land, take his food, and kill him in the process? Where is your conscience?” the post caption reads.
As of April 6, 2025, the post had attracted 424 views, 558 comments, 849 likes, and 3,500 reactions.
In the comment section, opinions were divided. Some X users believed the incident to be true, while some dismissed it as false.
“You are simply misleading people; you are trying to divert our attention from what your brothers did to Hausa hunters,” Mr Mubarak (@classiqOT) commented.
“That is what they are doing now in my village, Ubulu Uku, Delta state Aniocha South …. A family went to the farm, they kidnapped them, they wanted to use the woman, but the man refused, they kill the man, they also saw a vigilante ID card with him …., OG Richard agreed with the claimant.
Another X user, @Taiwo, wrote, “This is an old picture, not a recent one.”
Fabulous Tamunotonye Epelle, another X user, questioned, “Is there a video to confirm this claim? It doesn’t look to me like he’s dead.”
DUBAWA decided to verify the claim because of its sensitive nature and its impact on ethnic issues.
Verification
A quick look at the X account (@thatverydarkma1) showed it was a parody account created in April 2023. The account’s bio reads, “Parody account (not affiliated with Martins Vincent Otse aka VDM) Dm for ads and business.”
Having established that the post was not from VDM, we sought to establish the claim’s veracity. DUBAWA subjected the image shared in the post to a Google Reverse Image Search to ascertain when it first appeared online. We found a post on Nov 22, 2024, by X page (@IgboHistoFacts). The post revealed that weapon-brandishing herdsmen attacked the Eya Amufu community in Enugu State, killing three farmers.
The caption of the post read, “Breaking News: Weapon-brandishing herdsmen attack Eha Amufu community in Enugu, kill three farmers, injure many.”
A Facebook page, Fam with Tam, shared the same image, this time with emojis over it and a caption stating the incident happened in 2024.
Growfinace.com also shared the image on the newspaper headline page that armed herdsmen launched fresh attacks, killing three farmers in the Mgbuji community in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State, following a violent attack by armed herdsmen on Friday.
Several online platforms, such as Tori.ng, 9jaflaver, Nairaland, and Voice of Biafra, also reported that the incident happened in 2024 in the Eha-Amufu community of Enugu State.
Conclusion
The X post attributed to VDM was made using a parody account, and the image is misleading. Findings show that the image used to portray the killing of southerners by Fulani herdsmen is old.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This fact-check has been updated after DUBAWA’s attention was called to the fact that the Twitter account, @thatverydarkma1, does not belong to the popular Very Dark Man.
