Viral video Sokoto prison break, false 

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Rejoice Taddy

Claim: A Facebook user alleged that terrorists escaped from Sokoto prison after other terrorists allegedly blew up the prison walls. 

Verdict: False. DUBAWA found that the video used to portray the incident is AI-generated, and no credible news reports confirm any prison break or attack involving terrorists in Sokoto.

Full Text

A Facebook user, @Southern Piller, claimed that terrorists escaped from Sokoto prison with the help of other terrorists who blew the prison walls.

The claim (archived here) was made in a video with a caption that read, “Terrorists escaped from Sokoto prison in their numbers.”

We watched the one-minute reactionary video and saw a man pointing to the top of the screen, where an overlay video showed crowds of people running through a broken wall.

The claimant in the video said, “My people, it has happened again. Yesterday, terrorists escaped from Sokoto prison. The video you are seeing above is that video. These terrorists escaped in large numbers, and guess how they escaped? Terrorists rescued them by blowing up the prison wall. At the time they escaped, there was no interceptor or prison guard.”

The man continued by describing the alleged incident as an example of how Nigeria is run, claiming that it allows bandits to terrorise the country and escape from prison freely.

As of June 9, 2026, the post gathered over 41,000 likes, 2,400 comments, 10,000 shares, and 500,000 views. 

We analysed the comments on the post to gauge users’ thoughts. Many users questioned the video’s source and authenticity.

@Tedman Golden asked, “Who made the video. I mean, who is recording them?”

@Evelyn Nwaogu also inquired, “How did they break through the wall without getting noticed?”

@ Jack Joseph wrote, “Why did the media not carry this news? How can we be sure that this is real news or just content?”

Other social media users shared the claim on Facebook and Instagram here and here.

DUBAWA decided to verify the claim because of its sensitive nature and the significant engagement it had already attracted.

Verification

DUBAWA pasted the video’s link into InVID, a digital verification tool. The tool extracted keyframes, which we subjected to a reverse image search. This search returned multiple posts featuring the same video in different contexts.

We found a clearer version of the video on TikTok. When DUBAWA reviewed the video, we observed that an account outside Nigeria shared the same scene. This was evident from the Arabic voice-over, captions, and hashtags (“#dhiifama #arafa #mecca #ethiopian_tik_tok”).

We also copied the account’s bio, which reads,

“Beeksisa garaa garaa viidi’oonis ta’u sagaleedhaan haala bareedaa ta’een isiniif hojjenna,” and ran it through Google Translate. The tool identified the text as Oromo and translated it as: “We produce various types of advertisements/content for you, whether in video or audio form, in a professional manner.” 

We also used TikTok’s translate feature, which returned the same translation. Oromo is one of Ethiopia’s major languages, which is also spoken in some parts of Kenya. Additionally, we found the same video on several other platforms, all in contexts unrelated to Nigeria. These posts can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

A closer review of the footage revealed an inscription on the wall of the alleged broken prison facility. The inscription read “PENITENCIARIA,” a Spanish word meaning “prison.”

We then searched for reports of recent prison breaks in Spanish-speaking countries to determine whether the footage had been taken out of context and linked to Nigeria. However, no such incident matching the video was found.

DUBAWA observed several irregularities in the clearer version of the video. For example, the movement of the people in the video seemed unnatural, and there were no visible gaps or pauses as they ran through the opening.

Based on these observations, we subjected the footage to AI detection analysis. The video was first analysed using Hive AI, which returned a detection score of 95.6 per cent, indicating that the footage was likely AI-generated.

DUBAWA also analysed the footage using Deepfake Detection, another AI-content detection tool. The analysis returned an 85% probability that the video was fabricated.

Lastly, we searched to see if there were any reports of terrorists breaking out of a prison or attacking a prison in Sokoto, but found none.

Conclusion

DUBAWA found that the claim that terrorists escaped from Sokoto prison after a reported attack is false. The video used to support the claim is AI-generated, and no credible reports confirm any prison break or attack in Sokoto.