Picture of unidentified gunmen. Photo Source: Facebook.
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Claim: An X user shared a video claiming to show Fulani Muslim terrorists heading to attack Christians communities in Katsina.
Verdict: Misleading. The footage first circulated in June 2026 and depicts a convoy of motorcyclists identified by the Nigeria Police Force as registered hunters and members of the vigilante, not terrorists on an offensive mission against Christian communities.
Full Text
On Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, an X user, Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra), shared a video (archived here), showing a long convoy of motorcyclists passing parked vehicles, while a police officer waved at them.
Part of the post’s caption reads, “Muslim felani terrorists head to attack Christian communities, pass freely through a police checkpoint in Katsina, Nigeria!…”
The post’s author further alleged that the world’s legacy media are silent and politicians turn a blind eye.
As of Aug. 16, 2026, the post had generated 204,000 views, 15,900 likes, 6,600 reshares, 421 comments and 646 bookmarks.
The comment section is flooded with reactions from various X users, most of whom accept the claim as true.
“Where are all the flag wavers? I raised this ongoing atrocity with one of them yesterday; her response was that she only wanted to talk about Gaza. Wretched people, all of them.” Bob Potts wrote.
Another user, MindVoyageHQ, commented, “Christians deserve protection, and every government should be held accountable when it fails to provide it.”
Brenda also commented, “This will be coming soon to Europe and America if people don’t wake up, especially the Christians and Jews.”
Given the claim’s sensitive nature, the reactions it sparked, and its potential to fuel religious tensions, DUBAWA decided to investigate it.
Verification
We used the InVID verification tool to extract keyframes from the footage and conducted reverse image searches across visual search engines.
Our search traced the earliest upload of the video to a YouTube channel (@pagetvnigeria1795) published on June 24, 2026.
The same clip was widely circulated across platforms on June 24, 2026, by pages such as @CheckpointNigeria on Facebook and @Africanhealthreport on Instagram, both alleging that police officers were watching bandits move freely.
This confirms that the video dates back to June 2026.
To verify the identities of the people involved in the video, DUBAWA closely examined the keyframes, and a man dressed in police camouflage is seen alongside a man wearing a black top and red cap as the motorcycle convoy passes by. A Google image search of the camouflage uniform produced results matching the Nigerian Police Force’s camouflage uniform.
We conducted a keyword search to find related publications to the alleged incident and found a report by Sahara Reporters on June 24, 2026. The headline of the report reads “Video Shows Police Officers Hailing Armed Bandits As They Pass Freely Through Checkpoint In Northwest Nigeria.”
On the contrary, DUBAWA found a report by The Punch on June 24, 2026, with the headline, “Officer in viral Katsina video was with vigilantes, not bandits – Police”
The two reports present conflicting accounts of the identity of the motorcycle convoy.
On July 25, 2026, we found a Premium Times report confirming that the Police denied that the viral motorcycle video shows bandits. The police said the riders are vigilante hunters.
The Premium Times report also indicated that the Nigeria Police Force identified the people in the viral video as registered hunters and members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), not bandits, and that they were supporting security operations in Katsina State.
Conclusion
The video does not show terrorists heading to attack Christian communities. The Video is from a June incident, which the Police stated the people in the video were vigilante hunters, not terrorists. The claim is therefore misleading.
This fellowship is implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union.
