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Claim: Biafra Army has intercepted and attacked the Nigerian Army and carted away their weapons.
Verdict: False! The van used to portray the attack does not belong to the Nigerian Army.
Full Text
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafra War (July 6, 1967, through Jan. 13, 1970), was a political-ethnic armed conflict caused by the attempted secession of the provinces of the southeast of Nigeria, populated mainly by people of Igbo nationality, under the name of Biafra Republic.
Simon Ekpa, one of the current leaders of the Biafra independence movement, posted on his X account that “the Biafra Liberation Army had neutralised and recovered weapons from the Nigerian Army.”
The pictures and videos on the post indicate a vehicle on fire, with dismantled parts of the van allegedly belonging to the Army.
The tweet had mixed reactions from people in the comment section. For instance, @charloE80 wrote, “Well done, comrades, Bravo!”
However, another X user, @SpiceP2E, asked why the plate number differed.
Since this report was filed, the post has garnered 429,000 views, 2,000 reposts, 3,000 likes, and 152 quotes.
The mixed reactions from users, tweet virality, and sensitive nature made DUBAWA investigate the claim.
Verification
We carefully analysed the pictures attached to the post and saw that the number plate differed from the one the Nigerian Army used.
The type of vehicle displayed in the picture suggests that it is not a police duty patrol vehicle but a private escort vehicle.
We also ran the number plate on the alleged vehicle on the National Vehicle Identification system, which was invalid.
There was no evidence to show the weapons collected from the army. We also ran an advanced search on the claim and didn’t see anything of such by reliable and reputable media outlets.
Conclusion
The vehicle portrayed in the viral post by Mr Ekpa does not belong to the Nigerian Army. The vehicle’s number plate is also different from the one used by the force.
