A former federal lawmaker who represented Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, on Sunday, June 14, posted a collage of images purportedly showing heavily armed bandits handing over the body of the late Major General, Rabe Abubakar, to his family and a delegation in Katsina State.
Melaye’s post on X reads: “Heavily armed bandits handed over the body of General Rabe yesterday morning in Katsina and left for the neighboring forest of Matazu, unchallenged! What a country ???”
The post includes a collage of three images: one showing armed, masked men in military fatigues handing a green cloth-covered casket to men in traditional northern attire, and two others showing emotional family reunions involving a woman in a hijab.
As of June 15, 2026, the post has garnered over 540,000 views, 4,000 likes and over 2,000 reposts.
He also posted it on Facebook page.
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CLAIM
Images show heavily armed bandits unchallenged as they handed over the casket containing the remains of late Major General Rabe Abubakar to a delegation in Katsina State.
FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING. While the context surrounding the general’s death in captivity is factual, the accompanying images are not.
The ICIR reported that Major General Rabe Abubakar (rtd), a former Director of Defence Information, was abducted alongside his wife by bandits along the Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli Road in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State. After days in captivity, the Katsina State Government claimed the retired general passed away due to medical complications arising from diabetes and hypertension. However, his family said the deceased was not diabetic. Following his death, his remains were recovered and he was buried after Janaza prayers at the Katsina Central Mosque.
However, official report from the state government and security agencies did not state how terrorists released the deceased’ body for burial.
A close inspection of the photos shared by Melaye reveals structural distortions typical of AI tools, including deformed facial features on background of individuals, floating hands, inconsistent textures on firearms, and the barrel of an AK-47 rifle inexplicably passing directly through the coffin’s frame. The men in the picture also look strangely alike.
To verify these observations, The FactCheckHub uploaded the images to an AI detection tool, Is it AI, and the result showed they are 99.9% AI-generated.
For further verification, The FactCheckHub used another tool, Sightengine, which also returned a 99% probability that the image was AI-generated.
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In addition, The ICIR confirmed that the late general’s wife is still being held by bandits as of Sunday, June 14. This raises questions about her depiction in Melaye’s post. Visual cross-referencing also reveals a major contradiction: the woman portrayed as the late general’s wife in the image does not match authentic photographs of Amina Abubakar seen in previously circulated videos released by the bandits.
VERDICT
The claim that these images show bandits handing over General Rabe’s body in Katsina is misleading. While the retired general unfortunately passed away in captivity, the photographs circulated by Senator Dino Melaye are AI-generated illustrations.
Seasoned writer and literary curator, Zainab Abdulrasaq is a factchecker for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached on IG @blackbookishgirl or zabdulrasaq@icirnigeria.org
