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Incident where “Armed robbers tie-up staff, sell fuel for 3 hours,” occurred in Zimbabwe, not Nigeria

A user on Twitter claims that armed robbers tied up the staff of a certain filling station in Nigeria and sold off fuel for 3 hours.

Incident where “Armed robbers tie-up staff, sell fuel for 3 hours," occurred in Zimbabwe, not Nigeria

The claim that  armed robbers tied up the staff of a certain filling station implied to be in Nigeria  and sold off fuel for 3 hours is false. DUBUWA traced the actual incident to Zimbabwe and not Nigeria. Hence, this claim is false. 

Full text

No doubt, the Nigerian newspaper space has been grazed with multiple phenomenal headlines that are both catchy and sensational at the same time. Nonetheless,  this reality has with time,  raised little questions as regards reported matters that seem uncanny and doubtful at the same time. Typically in this case, where a Twitter user, (@EjayOfLagos) shared a  picture of a certain newspaper headline that read “armed robbers tie-up staff, sell fuel for 3 hours”. The user captioned the tweet as  “breaking news” then followed with the statement “this country na cruise” a prominent statement used by Nigerians to sometimes describe their despondency with the turn of events in the country.

The tweet garnered 1,500 retweets,     over 3,000 reactions, and 140 comments from diverse users with various views. One user (@ayinde_uba) challenged the claimant, commented that “it is not in Nigeria stop dey cap for retweets”  another user (@OverfeDamola) consented that this “can only be in Nigeria” while another user, (@horpeyemi) lamented that “we are just full of funny stories”. 

Even though citizens have the right to know whatever is happening around them, claims as such can demoralize their trust. It is as regards this reality that DUBAWA ventures to verify the validity of this claim. 

Verification 

DUBAWA first noticed that the price at the filling station  was  indicated Dollar sign, which is usually uncommon with  Nigerian filling stations. 

Incident where “Armed robbers tie-up staff, sell fuel for 3 hours," occurred in Zimbabwe, not Nigeria
The filling station in Amakhosi rated price with Dollar signs – uncommon to Nigerian filling stations

DUBAWA uncovered that though the incident actually took place, it occurred in Zimbabwe, Amakhosi Service Station along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road, and not in Nigeria as implied by the claimant. The report about the robbery was by different media houses in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other African countries. The Zambian Observer outlined the same headline as that of the claimant and at Iharere.com where the same news was reported to have happened in Zimbabwe. On Chronicles.co.zw the same story was also reported in detail along the same line with the others. Incident where “Armed robbers tie-up staff, sell fuel for 3 hours," occurred in Zimbabwe, not Nigeria

Chronicles reportage of the same incident in Zimbabwe 

Also, the claimant neither gave further details or a link to the story but rather smartly created a narrative around the situation to link it to Nigeria. 

Conclusion 

The  claim that  armed robbers tied up the staff of a certain filling station purported to be from Nigeria and sold off fuel for 3 hours is a  narrative designed to mislead people into thinking that it happened in Nigeria. This claim is false. 

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