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Claim: Popular blog Instablog9ja reposted a video on X, claiming it shows youth in Edo protesting against bad governance.
Verdict: False! The video was taken during a recent demonstration by tertiary institution students in Ondo state, protesting the alleged rise in kidnappings and other criminal activities.
Full Text
On March 31, 2025, Instablog9ja, a popular blog in Nigeria, reposted a video from an X user, Onyebuchi Onyibest, who captioned the clip as a faceoff between the Nigerian Army and youths of Edo state.
In the one-minute-long video, several young adults were seen holding placards and chanting “solidarity forever” while confronting Nigerian Army officers in a tense standoff.
Towards the end of the video, the soldiers retreated and were no longer visible.
The context of the video was unclear. However, according to the narrative shared by the X user and Instablog, it depicted a confrontation between the Nigerian Army and youth in Edo state.
While some social media users claimed the video was recorded elsewhere, others argued that youth in the South West would not have confronted the soldiers in such a manner, suggesting they are generally less confrontational.
Some users prompted Grok, the AI conversational chatbot developed by xAI, to fact-check the video, seeking context on its recency and the events unfolding at the scene.
In an intriguing response, Grok suggested that the video was likely of a car accident in Edo state on March 1, 2025.
For context, the video surfaced amid outrage over the killing of some hunters in Edo. On March 27, 2025, a mob in the Uromi area of the state allegedly attacked and killed at least 16 hunters of northern descent who were travelling from Elele, Rivers state.
As of April 2, 2025, the video had garnered one million views, 12,000 likes, and nearly 3,000 retweets on the X handle of Instablog, which boasts 5.4 million followers on the microblogging platform.
Given the issue’s sensitive nature and the video’s virality, DUBAWA scrutinised it to ascertain its veracity.
Verification
A few days ago, media outlets reported that students from all tertiary institutions in Ondo gathered in the state capital, Akure, to protest the increasing cases of insecurity in the state.
The Chairperson of the National Association of Nigerian Students Joint Campus Council (NANS JCC) in Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Joshua, led the students to block major roads in Akure, demanding that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and security agencies take action to address the growing insecurity in the state.
They also expressed concerns over the deteriorating conditions of tertiary institutions in the state and the absence of student-friendly policies impacting them.
DUBAWA’s findings showed that the video in the tweet shared by the X user and Instablog was captured during this Ondo protest.
Using Google’s “About this image” feature on a snapshot of the video, DUBAWA discovered that it was shared on News Central TV, though it was tagged as an amateur video filmed during the protest.
The clip was also shared on several other platforms reporting the incident as seen here, here and here.
According to media reports, the students blocked Oba Adesida Road. Using Google Street View, DUBAWA traced the location of the video to the junction near the A Division of the Nigeria Police Force office at Alayere, Akure.
Conclusion
Contrary to the X user’s claims, the video was not a confrontation between the youth of Edo state and soldiers or an accident scene, as Grok suggested. Rather, it was filmed in Akure, the capital city of Ondo state, during a recent protest.
