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Please note that the FactCheckHub has not obtained any right from the authors or copyright owners of all third-party contents from embedded links and shall incur no liability in this regard.
Please note that the FactCheckHub has not obtained any right from the authors or copyright owners of all third-party contents from embedded links and shall incur no liability in this regard.
A Twitter user with the handle @Eonsintelligenc has tweeted a video that shows some residents fleeing a community with a claim that the video shows residents of some communities in Niger state fleeing their homes as a result of bandits’ attacks in the areas.
The 30 seconds video (now deleted) was tweeted on the 3rd of April, 2022, with the caption: “Another video showing Residents fleeing their homes after bandits attacked the border Communities within Shiroro, Munya & Kafikoro LGAs 3 days ago. They are said to have converged at the Shiroro staff quarters to proceed to the IDP camps in Gwada and Zumba in Shiroro LGA.”
The tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times on Twitter before it was deleted.
Located in Central Nigeria, Niger state is the worst hit by bandits’ attacks among states in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2022 with at least 787 fatalities. Shiroro, Munya and Kafikoro are local government areas in the state.
THE CLAIM
The video shows residents fleeing their homes in Niger state communities.
Screenshot of the video posted by the Twitter user @Eonsintelligenc.
THE FINDINGS
When The FactCheckHub subjected the keyframes of the video to multiple Reverse Image Search, the results show that the video has been online since June 2021.
Findings revealed that a longer version of the video was published on the Facebook page of SAIDA International e.V, a German-based international organization on the 8th of June, 2021 with a caption in German language indicating that the video emanated from Burkina Faso.
“Fleeing their own country: As if the people of #BurkinaFaso, one of the poorest countries in the world didn’t have enough to worry about, they now have to leave their possessions and goods behind and flee murderous gangs…” a Google translation of the Facebook post read.
The 1 minute and 32seconds longer video was also posted the same day on the YouTube channel of Lobs Paalga TV, a Burkina Faso-based Television station with the title: “vidéo d’un exode attribué aux habitants de solhan.” Using Google Translation, it reads: “video of an exodus attributed to the inhabitants of Solhan.”
Further findings show that the incident was also reported by Al-Jazeera on the same date.
“More than 7,000 families fled their homes in Solhan village in Burkina Faso’s northern region following the massacre that claimed the lives of several people,” the news medium reported.
Meanwhile, the Twitter user @Eonsintelligenc later apologized for tweeting the video.
UPDATE: Our Editorial boards attention has been called to this post done by members of our team earlier today based on initial info that suggest it to be that of the incident in Shiroro LGA, Niger State some 3 days ago. In view of new info which suggest otherwise, we apologize. https://t.co/S3hVO5Djmv
— Eons Intelligence (@eonsintelligenc) April 4, 2022
“Our Editorial board’s attention has been called to this post done by members of our team earlier today based on initial info that suggests it to be that of the incident in Shiroro LGA, Niger State some 3 days ago. In view of new info which suggests otherwise, we apologize,” the tweet read.
It will be recalled that TheFactCheckHub had in November 2021 fact-checked the same Twitter user when it posted a video of a collapsed mining site claiming that the incident happened in Zamfara state.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows residents fleeing their homes in Niger state communities is FALSE; as findings show that the video emanated from the crisis that rocked Solhan village in Yagha province, Burkina Faso in June 2021.
AN IMAGE showing Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with a pump nozzle, dispensing fuel into a car at a filling station has resurfaced online with a claim that the photo was shot when the VP visited a filling station recently as the nation prepares for the 2023 general election.
Osinbajo had on Monday, 11th of April 2022, declared his intention to contest in the country’s next presidential election. The declaration had elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians.
A Twitter user named JOE with the handle @gani_jonathan tweeted the photo with a caption: “Election don near Osinbajo don turn fuel attendant.”
Another Twitter user named King Cally with the handle @Caleb_Abah1 also tweeted the same photo with the caption: “2023 Ambition: Osinbajo is now a fuel pump attendant. Isn’t this format stale?”
The same image was also posted by several Facebook accounts with claims suggesting that it was shot recently.
One of them was Promise Mathew Emeka who also posted the image on Facebook alongside the caption: “Ahead of 2023 elections, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the vice-president of this country turns to fuel pump attendant.”
CLAIM
That the image shows Osinbajo dispensing fuel at a filling station ahead of the 2023 election.
Screenshot of the post from Twitter user, @gani_jonathan.
THE FINDINGS
A Google Reverse Image Search on the image shows that the photo first appeared on the internet on the 25th of December, 2017.
The image alongside several others was shot when Vice President Osinbajo visited two filling stations in Lagos on the 24th of December, 2017 amid fuel scarcity in the country at the time, The Punch newspaper reported.
Using the Image Analysis tool on InVID verification toolbox, findings by The FactCheckHub show that JOE’s tweet was retweeted more than 2,000 times with over 6,000 Likes and over 700 replies on Twitter as of 2 p.m. on Thursday, 14th of April, 2022.
Screenshot of the Image Analysis using InVID verification tool.
In a statement released via his official Twitter handle @profosinbajo on the 25th of December, 2017, Osinbajo said that he visited the filling stations to witness first-hand, the sufferings of Nigerians who were subjected to endless queues due to the fuel scarcity.
“This is something that President Buhari is deeply concerned about, mandating all relevant persons to bring an end to the fuel queues. I witnessed first-hand the discomfort that many of us have to contend with.
“We sympathise with you and are working assiduously to eliminate this pain in the shortest possible time. We regret this inconvenience while assuring that all hands are on deck to return things to normalcy,” the tweets thread read in part.
Other news websites and online blogs also published the same image on the 25th of December, 2017 as seen here, here, here and here.
THE VERDICT
The viral image of Osinbajo dispensing fuel at a filling station is not recent, thus MISLEADING; the image is an old photo that has been online since December 2017.
JOURNALISTS, fact-checkers, policymakers, tech and media experts will converge in Oslo, Norway between June 22 – 25, 2022 to attend the ninth edition of the Global Fact conference.
This year’s gathering, otherwise known as Global Fact 9, is one of the world’s largest fact-checking conferences and holds at the Oslo Metropolitan University in Oslo, Norway. Virtual participation is also available.
Organized annually by the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), the speakers for this year’s event include Craig Silverman of ProPublica, The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum and Peter McIndoe, the Gen Z creator of satirical conspiracy ‘Birds Aren’t Real’ and Jane Lytvynenko, former BuzzFeed News staff and now a research fellow with Harvard’s Shorenstein Centre.
Other notable speakers expected at the event include Joan Donovan, research director at the Shorenstein Center, and Bill Adair, the founder of PolitiFact.
“Dealing in the world of misinformation for the past few years, we’ve been really conscious of the line we walk,” McIndoe told The New York Times in December.
“The idea is meant to be so preposterous, but we make sure nothing we’re saying is too realistic. That’s a consideration with coming out of character,” he added.
Silverman is an investigative reporter covering disinformation and digital manipulation.
In 2019, Silverman did a report about how marketing and advertising companies pay Facebook users to take control of their accounts in order to hawk scams and marketing schemes.
“Whether it’s Russian trolls trying to create division in a democracy, marketers scheming to get the best Amazon reviews for their product, or criminals using a self-publishing platform to launder money, our media environment is more open to manipulation than ever before,” says Silverman.
Lytvynenko’s work with the Shorenstein Centre, which is centred on tech and social change, focuses on “devising a training curriculum for newsrooms and academics, auditing research, and digging into media manipulation cases globally.”
The past editions of the conference took place in London, Buenos Aires, Rome and Cape Town.
PROFESSOR of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University Farooq Kperogi has again come under fire for claiming that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo uses his Office to facilitate job appointments for members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) where he is a pastor.
Kperogi wrote on Monday that the VP sees his position in government as “an opportunity to promote the supremacy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)” which he has characterized as Osinbajo’s RCCGification project.
The article titled “Two Major Lies in Osinbajo’s Declaration Speech” has been the latest sensation on social media.
At the last count, the post has garnered over 5,000 likes on Facebook and was shared more than 1,500 times as of Wednesday, 13th of April, 2022.
On Twitter, Kperogi’s followers have locked horns, defending or criticizing the 760-word article.
But is his claim about Osinbajo facilitating the appointment of RCCG members in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government TRUE or FALSE?
Relying on public records, The ICIR profiles some of the government appointees whose recruitment Osinbajo allegedly facilitated.
The first on the list was the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment between 2015 and 2019, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah.
Former Trade Minister Okechukwu Enelamah.
Dr. Enelamah indeed was the pastor of RCCG Olive Tree parish at Banana Island Ikoyi Lagos. He was commissioned in May 2015, a few months before he was announced as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He succeeded Pastor Osinbajo who then was transferred from RCCG Jesus Centre parish to Olive Tree in October 2009.
But at the time of his appointment, he was also the head of African Capital Alliance (ACA), Nigeria’s biggest private equity firm. The company raised over $750 million in managed funds since its inception in 1997.
A graduate of Harvard Business School, Dr. Enelamah was Investment Partner at Zephyr Management, a global investment management firm headquartered in New York, United States after a stint at Goldman Sachs.
Another prominent hire allegedly facilitated by the VP Osinbajo is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande.
Long before he returned to Nigeria to serve in the Office of the Vice President, the former reporter at The Guardian was also the pastor of RCCG Jesus Friends Assembly, Bayshore, New York, USA.
According to the information on the church’s website, Akande started the parish on May 13, 2007, then located in Brentwood.
In 2015, he was appointed as the spokesperson for the vice president.
Laolu Akande, spokesperson to the Vice President Osinbajo.
Kperogi wrote that Akande abandoned his church to take up the government job in Nigeria. “I’ve learned that Akande’s parish in New York has now closed,” he wrote.
The ICIR’s finding shows that the church is still operating. In fact, the Church Resurrection Celebration service is slated for Sunday, April 17 at its current address 150 Motorparkway, Suite 304 Hauppauge, NY.
The third nominee of the VP on Kperogi’s list is the former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler.
Former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler.
The ICIR confirmed that the taxman is also a pastor of the RCCG.
He is currently the assistant pastor in charge of Administrative Business for the Rose of Sharon parish, GRA Ikeja Lagos. He and Pastor Bolanle Soremekun who is in charge of the church’s Corporate Social Responsibility deputise for the senior Pastor Emeka Obiagwu who has been overseeing the church since 2010.
Then, there is the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Ayoola Okoh whom The ICIR confirmed also to be a pastor.
Okoh is a pastor at RCCG Olive Tree Parish. In fact, he was the immediate successor of Enelamah at Olive Tree parish where Osinbajo also pastored earlier. He became pastor at the church after Enelamah was appointed as Trade Minister.
In 2017, he got his own appointment as the overall boss at BPE.
Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Ayoola Okoh.
However, Okoh also was the Managing Partner, Ashford & McGuire Consulting Ltd., a leading consulting firm that offers Financial Advisory services.
He was the Managing Director/CEO of NNB International Bank from January 2001 to December 2005 and was regarded as the one that repositioned the bank as a leading commercial bank and led the merger between the bank and eight others to form the Unity Bank.
Also on the list shared by Professor Kperogi is Pastor Olukayode Pitan, the pioneer pastor of Olive Tree parish. The parish was established in 1995 by Pastor Alfred Olufemiyimi and his wife, Abby.
Pitan was later transferred to Lagos Province 35 parish and Tabernacle of David parish, Ajah Lagos and he was succeeded by Osinbajo at Olive Tree.
In 2017, while acting as president, Osinbajo approved the appointment of Pitan as the managing director of the Bank of Industry (BOI). Buhari, however, renewed Pitan’s appointment last month for good performance.
Under his watch, BOI has promoted financial inclusion by supporting the expansion of over three million enterprises, thereby creating over seven million jobs, a statement from the presidency has noted.
Before his appointment, he was also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Interstate Bank Plc. He served as Executive Director of Unity Bank Plc in charge of Corporate Banking and Treasury Management.
MD/CEO Bank of Industry, Olukayode Pitan.
Though Kperogi did not mention Ben Akabueze, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation as one of the beneficiaries of Osinbajo’s RCCGification project, other critics of the VP have listed him as one of those who got the job because of his RCCG membership.
Akabueze was first appointed as a Special Adviser Planning to the President in 2016 and later was appointed as Director-General of the Budget Office by President Buhari. Curiously, he was also an RCCG pastor.
Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
He was the Pastor-in-charge of Lagos Province 39 of the RCCG with headquarters at The King’s Court Parish in Victoria Island, Lagos untill his appointment with the Federal Government six years ago.
There was also Edobor Iyamu, the former Senior Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. He was among the 35 aides of the vice president that was allegedly fired by Buhari in 2019.
Iyamu is the Pastor in Charge of Jesus Family Parish of the RCCG since 2008 to date. The church is located at No 20, Sumbo Jibowu Street, Off Ribadu Road, S.W. Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria.
Edobor Iyamu, the former Senior Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs.
An expert in Investment and Commercial Law, Iyamu is the Managing Partner at Lawfield (Barristers & Solicitors).
According to his LinkedIn profile, he holds MSc in Maritime Law from the University of London Queen Mary College and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Ambrose Alli University (AAU), formerly Bendel State University, Ekpoma.
The ICIR yesterday sent questions to Arukaino Umukoro, the Special Assistant on Communication Projects, at the Presidency via Facebook. He is yet to respond even though he was active 1 hour ago before the time of publishing this report.
He has however debunked the claim that Osinbajo nominated ministers, in a response to an article published in the media.
“The President appoints his Ministers,” he stated.
His defence notwithstanding, evidence has shown that several pastors of RCCG have found their way to the Buhari government even though they are men with an outstanding record of achievement. But is it a coincidence that seven RCCG pastors got key positions in the Buhari government? Does the vice president have agenda to fill the government offices with RCCG pastors as Kperogi claimed?
The ICIR contacted Laolu Akande for comment, “No I won’t dignify nonsense,” he responded.
Meanwhile, a source in the presidency told The ICIR that Enelamah and Pitan were actually nominated and brought in by the former Chief of Staff to the president, late Abba Kyari who had known the two men as bankers in Lagos when Kyari was also at UBA.
The source, however, confirmed that VP Osinbajo nominated Okoh. The source also dismissed the role allegedly played by the VP in the selection of Soun of Ogbomosho and Akirun of Ikirun?
“He is not an appointing authority, so could not play a role,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a video obtained from the office of the vice president showed that 17 staff at the Office of the Vice President are Muslims. Four of them are from the South, and 13 are from the North.
FOLLOWING recent bandits’ attacks in Nigeria, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Drainage and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe, has posted a video with a claim that it is drone footage of armed bandits who have been kidnapping Nigerians.
Igbokwe, who doubles as a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), took to his Facebook page on Monday, April 4, 2022, to share the 139 seconds video, with a caption alluding that the video shows the bandits terrorizing Nigeria in their hideout.
“🎥This is drone footage of armed bandits who have been kidnapping Nigerians. The footage shows them in their hideout in an unknown forest. They appear not to know they are being captured by a drone,” his post read.
The post has garnered over 1,400 shares while the video has gotten over 3,700 views as of Sunday, April 10, 2022.
The video was also shared by a Twitter user with the handle @Gen_Buhar alongside a claim that the video was that of Nigerian Army using drone to detect the hideout of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) allegedly terrorizing Nigeria’s South Eastern region.
The ESN is the paramilitary organization of the IPOB, a pro-Biafra separatist movement in Nigeria.
“Nigeria Army use drone to detect IPOB/ESN terrorists den in SE ….,” his tweet read.
CLAIM
Video shows drone footage of armed bandits who have been kidnapping Nigerians.
The screenshot of Joe Igbokwe’s Facebook post.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Although the video has no sound, a Google reverse image search on different frames of the video, however, revealed that the video emanated from Kenya.
A Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Post, had on Monday, April 4, 2022, published the video while reporting that it was drone footage of bandits hiding a large number of stolen livestock in the bush along the Samburu- Baringo border in Kenya.
“Security Surveillance Drone captured armed bandits in the bush hiding a large number of stolen livestock along the Samburu – Baringo border,” the news read in part.
The video was also published and reported by TUKO, a popular news platform in Kenya.
“A General Service Unit drone has captured armed cattle rustlers hiding in a thicket in Pokot with stolen livestock,” TUKO reported.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows drone footage of armed bandits who have been kidnapping Nigerians is FALSE; checks revealed that the video is that of a drone that captured armed cattle rustlers hiding in a bush in Kenya.
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has revealed plans to assist fact-checkers globally to tackle misinformation on WhatsApp, the world’s largest messaging app, through grant support.
According to Poynter Institute’s IFCN, the support, in partnership with Meta, tagged “Spread the Facts Grant Program” will enable fact-checkers “to launch, innovate and scale fact-checking solutions” on a global level.
“More than 2 billion people around the world rely on WhatsApp to connect with friends and family, stay updated on world events and share information,” said Ferdi Özsoy, programme manager at the IFCN.
“With support from WhatsApp, the Spread the Facts Grant Program will give verified fact-checking organizations resources to deescalate the harm of viral misinformation and improve the quality of public debate,” he added.
He further noted that all aspirants must be signatories to the IFCN’s code of principles, and must be able to prove how their fact-checking skill has contributed to tackling misinformation on WhatsApp or will contribute to tackling misinformation and peddling of fake news on WhatsApp.
“Grantees will have the opportunity to share their work with the global fact-checking community in 2023 at Global Fact 10, the IFCN’s premier fact-checking summit that unites creators, consumers and champions of fact-based reporting from more than 60 different countries,” he said.
A report by the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRLab) has accused Yandex of succumbing to Russia’s domestic regulations by suppressing Ukraine war information for its users in Russia.
The report noted that the search engine has promoted state media and narratives in its search results, de-ranked and removed contents critical of the Russian government on its platform.
Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia.
“To operate as widely as it does in Russia, Yandex complies with these domestic regulations, impacting its approach to content moderation and use of algorithmic ranking. Yandex dropped unofficial sources, such as blogs and foreign media, from its aggregator and began to prioritize state-approved outlets. In other words, the law has created a chilling effect.
“Yandex consistently showed higher rankings of common Russian disinformation narratives, de-ranking of content and media indicating opposition to the war, and a complete lack of access to sites labelled as “restricted” by the Kremlin,” parts of the report read.
It further noted that global technology firms have grappled with how to mitigate disinformation and respond to requests from the Russian government to censor information on their platforms since the onset of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
It explained that long before the current war, the Russian government put in place a series of laws giving state censors, the legal mandate and technical capacity to curtail online information and discourse which enables the Vladimir Putin-led government to dictate which content is allowed on news websites.
The report added that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the crackdown on freedom of expression in the country has accelerated with several legislations meant to halt critical coverage of the war, punish journalists and citizens speaking against it, and further insulate the Russian populace from accurate information.
TIKTOK is feeding misinformation and disinformation content to its over 1 billion users about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, a report released by NewsGuard Misinformation Monitor says.
According to NewsGuard – a media-tech firm that rates the credibility of news and information websites, misleading information about the war in Ukraine reaches users a few minutes after signing up on the app.
“TikTok is feeding false and misleading content about the war in Ukraine to users within 40 minutes of their signing up to the app, regardless of whether they run any searches on the platform,” NewsGuard revealed.
The investigation, which was launched in March 2022, had a team of six analysts who created new accounts on TikTok and would later discover that the top 20 results for searches on “Ukraine, “Russia, “War,” “Kyiv,” and “Donbas” all had videos that contained misinformation and inaccurate claims.
The analysts arrived at this conclusion having run experiments on the TikTok app’s personalized “For You” feed for 45 minutes, watching videos relating to the Russia-Ukraine war in full without initiating any searches about the conflict.
According to the report, a French-speaking analyst saw a video of a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming that “Today’s neo-Nazis have taken power in Ukraine”.
However, the video, which had generated more than 1.7 million views and shared more than 15,000 times, has previously been identified as a Kremlin propaganda video.
“Within 36 minutes, the same analyst was shown a video, published on March 5, of a man claiming that “all the images of this pseudo-war are fake. There are no images coming out of Ukraine, even Russian Spentsnaz soldiers aren’t allowed to have smartphones to film anything-so all the images you see in the media are fake.”
“Toward the end of the 45–minute experiment, analysts’ feeds were almost exclusively populated with both accurate and false content related to the war in Ukraine — with no distinction made between disinformation and reliable sources.
“At a time when false narratives about the Russia-Ukraine conflict are proliferating online, none of the videos fed to our analysts by TikTok’s algorithm contained any information about the trustworthiness of the source, warnings, fact-checks, or additional information that could empower users with reliable information.
“In addition to the clear disinformation in TikTok’s search results, the platform also suggested reliable sources to NewsGuard’s analysts, including Sky News and The Telegraph.
“While reliable sources tend to be “verified” on TikTok with a blue tick, their content still appears alongside other videos carrying Kremlin propaganda claims in the platforms’ search results, with no other distinction made between the two. In particular, TikTok does not include information about the trustworthiness of news sources on its platform,” it noted.
GOOGLE has announced plans to roll out new features that enhance access to trusted information as well as invest $10 million to address the spread of misinformation, especially about the realities and facts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Chief Executive Officer of Google and Alphabet Inc., Sundar Pichai made this announcement during a visit to civil societies supporting refugees as well as Ukrainian startups in Warsaw, Poland.
“A big part of the challenge is addressing the misinformation that is spreading about the realities and facts of the war in Ukraine. Today, we’re committing an additional $10 million for this effort, including new partnerships with think tanks and civil society organizations to conduct region-specific research into misinformation and disinformation, as well as cash grants to support fact-checking networks and non-profits,” Sundar said in the blog post.
He noted that more features will be introduced to combat misinformation and enhance reliable information.
“As an information company, we take our responsibility seriously to provide reliable, trustworthy information to people when they need it. We saw how many Ukrainians turned to Search to find up-to-date information, including where to find shelter or humanitarian aid, and relied on air raid alerts on their phones. To help, we’re also rolling out new features that enhance access to trusted information, including Info Panels in local languages and Transparency Labels for publisher content on YouTube.”
He added that Jigsaw, a unit within Google, will partner with local experts and academics to develop approaches to counter disinformation and help people easily identify disinformation.
FOLLOWING the reported bandits’ attack on a train carrying over 900 passengers from Abuja to Kaduna on Monday, March 28, 2022, a viral image of train wreckage has been shared multiple times online with a claim that it depicts the incident.
The viral image shows train wreckage caused by an explosion with smoke billowing from it.
A Twitter user with the handle @four_unit tweeted the image with a caption thus:
“JUST IN; 28/3/22 Today Monday news reaching us that Fulani terrorists popularly known as “Bandits” Bombed Kaduna-Abuja Train With Over 1,000 Passengers Aboard. Me :Free MNK, End Nigeria. End Fulani terrorists acts.”
Another Twitter user with the handle @EkoVanguardTV also shared the same photo with the caption below:
“Breaking News: Over 1,000 passengers feared dead as bandits bomb train referring passengers. Eye witness reports from Villagers along Abuja-Kaduna road called to confirm hearing multiple gunshots and attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train by terrorists.”
THE CLAIM
The photo shows the Abuja – Kaduna train attacked by bandits.
THE FINDINGS
A Google Reverse Image search by The FactCheckHub shows that the image has nothing to do with the Nigerian train bombed by bandits in Kaduna.
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the image was from Iran’s trains crash which happened in Semnan province and killed dozens on the 25th of November 2016, according to a BBC News report.
The image was also used in a similar news report published by the AFP news agency in November 2016.
Another media report which published the image in 2016 also confirmed that the train collision in Iran killed at least 44 people and injured several others.
THE VERDICT
The image of the train wreckage does not depict the Kaduna incident where a train was bombed by bandits in Nigeria; thus making the claim FALSE.
