A former Nigerian lawmaker, Shehu Sani, has claimed that a terrorist leader named Kachalla was announced to have been killed on three different occasions by Nigerian authorities.
Sani made the claim on X (formerly Twitter) on December 17, 2023 while reacting to the recent killing of four notorious terrorist commanders in air strikes by the Nigerian military last week with one of them bearing the name ‘Kachalla.’
“The terrorist leader called Kachalla was killed THREE TIMES;2020,2022 and 2023.”
The post, which shows a picture collage of at least 3 different websites’ screenshots, has garnered over 600,000 views, more than 2,700 reposts, over 1,700 comments and more than 4,000 likes as of December 19, 2023.
Similarly, the same post was republished on X by Professor Chidi Odinkalu, a lawyer and former Chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on December 18.
It has also garnered over 20,000 views as of December 19, 2023.
CLAIM
A terrorist named Kachalla was announced dead three times by Nigerian authorities.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
When this researcher looked at the contents of the media reports shared by Shehu Sani, findings show that the terrorists were three different persons and not the same person.
While they shared same last names, their first names differ indicating that they are three different individuals.
The three terrorists were Nasiru Kachalla, Kachalla Gudau and Ali Alhaji Alheri, also known as Kachalla Ali Kawaje.
In 2020, Nasiru Kachalla, a notorious terrorist was killed during a rival war among bandits terrorizing Kajuru and Chikun Local Government Areas of Kaduna state.
The terrorist was said to be the mastermind of the January 9, 2020 kidnapping of seminarians of Good Shepherd Major Seminary, Kaduna and several other killings and kidnapping in the state.
In 2022, the state government announced the killing of bandit leader, Kachalla Gudau who was among those neutralized by the troops of Nigerian Army at Kankomi in Kaduna state.
Kachalla Gudau was also a bandits’ leader who commanded a large number of foot soldiers, kidnapped and killed several civilians in Chikun, Kachia and Kajuru local government areas of the state.
In a recent development, Defence Headquarters confirmed the killing of Ali Alhaji Alheri, popularly called Kachalla Ali Kawaje and three other notorious terrorist commanders in air strikes on December 12, 2023.
He was reportedly neutralized in Munya Local Government Area of Niger state along with many of his foot soldiers.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Nigerian authorities announce the killings of same terrorist named Kachalla three times is MISLEADING; findings show that they were three different persons who shared the same last name.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
