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Claim: Omoyele Sowore, a Nigerian activist, recently went to the United States to disrupt a town hall meeting held by supporters of the government and to condemn the killing of protesters in Nigeria.
Verdict: Misleading! Although Mr Sowore expressed his anger at some Nigerians gathered at a town hall meeting in the United States, the video in question was uploaded 12 years ago and is unrelated to the #EndBadGovernance protest.
Full Text
The #EndBadGovernance protest, scheduled to end on Aug 10, has continued to generate ripples across the country. The protest, fuelled by the harsh economic realities in the country, has garnered mixed reactions.
President Bola Tinubu recently addressed Nigerians and urged the protesters to stop the days-long demonstrations. He assured them he was working to end the country’s economic turmoil.
In addition, state governors across the country have also called on residents in their respective states to return to their businesses and other engagements with promises of ensuring a better government.
Mr Sowore is one of the major voices supporting the ongoing protest. Many of the protesters, including Sowore, had vowed not to back down until the 10th day of the protest.
On Aug 6, social media users shared a video showing Mr Sowore and several others disrupting a supposed town hall meeting held in the United States.
In the video, Mr Sowore mentioned that 20 people were killed in a peaceful protest in Nigeria ‘last week’. He criticised the attendees for holding a town hall meeting in America called ‘the home of civil rights.
The mention of peaceful protesters killed ‘last week’ resonates with media reports of citizens killed in different states across the country during the #Endbadgovernance protest in Nigeria within the first few days of the protest.
Although the original footage is not recent, the reference to peaceful protesters killed ‘last week’ aligns with media reports of citizens killed in some states across Nigeria amid the #EndBadGovernance protests.
This made some Nigerians recirculate the video, assuming that the clip was a recent one. DUBAWA observed that the video had gone viral amid the ongoing protest, as seen here and here, and decided to verify it.
Verification
DUBAWA conducted a keyframe analysis of the video and found that it had been edited at various points and pieced together to create the impression of being recent.
Findings, however, showed it was not recent. It was captured as far back as 2012.
In 2012, Mr Sowore and some members of the #OccupyNigeria movement disrupted a Town Hall meeting at the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York, which had the then Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Viola Onwuliri, in attendance.
The Minister had staged a town hall meeting at the time to explain fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria before Mr Sowore and his team came in and insisted the government stop killing innocent and peaceful protesters in Nigeria.
Conclusion
Mr Sowore didn’t disrupt a town hall meeting in the US to protest the killing of demonstrators in Nigeria amid the #EndBadGovernance protests. The footage circulating online was from 2012.
