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Claim: A Facebook user shared a video showing armed men holding civilians hostage and presented the incident as a recent one.
Verdict: Misleading. The video is not recent. It dates back to September 2024, when notorious bandit kingpin Bello Turji released footage of residents abducted from Moriki community in Zamfara State.
Full Text
On Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, Sadeeq Manplusbubell shared a video on Facebook showing several armed men standing behind civilians seated on the ground in an open grassland.
One of the armed men fired several shots into the air before asking a captive to identify himself and speak to his people. The captives pleaded with their families to pay ransom, while one warned against involving soldiers in their rescue.
In the video, a captive who identified himself as Abdulrazaq Moriki appealed to his family to pay ransom, stating that the kidnappers will kill the abductees just as they did to “Sarkin Gobir.”
DUBAWA found that the ‘Sarkin Gobir’ the captive was talking about is Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa, the traditional ruler (Emir) of Gobir in Sokoto State, who was abducted in August 2024 and subsequently murdered after ransom negotiations failed.
Another captive made a similar appeal for help and ransom payment. He also referenced the killing of “Sarkin Gobir,” saying that when the man resisted, he was killed.
The post (archived here) was accompanied by a caption in Hausa, “Kuduba Bindigun da suke hannun su jamaa wake basu” (Translation: Look at the guns in their hands, people, who gives them?).
As of Sept. 7, 2026, the post had attracted about 1,400 likes, 54 comments, 134 shares, and 52 bookmarks.
The video attracted outrage from users. One user, Lokaci Abdullahi, wrote, “Bello Turji, there will be a day when money will not bring you pleasure, and you will meet Allah.”
Sadis A Nuhu wrote, “May Allah save the poor people of Nigeria,” while Tanimu T-Guy said, “May Allah bring you a solution.”
The post did not state when or where the video was recorded. DUBAWA investigated the footage to determine whether it was recent.
Verification
DUBAWA extracted keyframes from the video and conducted reverse-image searches using Google. The results showed that the video first circulated widely in mid-September 2024. Media outlets, including Ripples Nigeria and Gistmania, published news reports on the footage on Sept. 12, 2024.
The reports documented how Bello Turji released the proof-of-life video showing kidnapped residents of the Moriki community in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The reports quoted Turji as saying he placed a N50 million levy on the community following an alleged killing of cows belonging to Fulani people by soldiers.
Conclusion
The Facebook post is misleading because it presents a September 2024 abduction video as a recent kidnapping incident.
DUBAWA traced the footage to Nigerian media reports published in September 2024, which identified Bello Turji and linked the captives to Moriki in Zamfara State.
This fact-check was produced as part of the DUBAWA fellowship, implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union.