FOLLOWING the Nigerian government’s planned intervention to stop the military coup in Niger Republic, some influential Twitter accounts have tweeted a video purportedly showing the troops of Nigerien army preparing to confront the Nigerian army.
The video is circulating following the recent coup in Niger that sacked the democratically elected administration of Mohamed Bazoum,
As the chairman of Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu denounced the recent coup in Niger Republic and assured swift intervention.
READ : Niger coup : Video does not show Nigerian army ready to attack Niger Republic
He further threatened to impose sanctions on the country which began by cutting off power that supplied the country.
Next, he wrote to the National Assembly (NASS) seeking military intervention against the military junta.
But here are prominent twitter users who used their great following to disseminate misleading video on the Niger Coup.
1. Ex-Governorship Candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV)
A governorship candidate of Labour Party in Lagos State at the just concluded 2023 election, Rhodes-Vivour is among the Twitter accounts that shared the video.
He tweeted the video to validate his argument against the Nigerian government’s proposed idea to wage war against Niger.
He has has over 200,000 followers on Twitter, but he tweeted the controversial video with a caption :
“Unlike some, i have only one passport and have sworn no allegiance to any other state. Nigeria is all I have.
“A war with a people who appear to be uniting around a common interest, seeking economic freedom and a departure from over bearing western influence will have very dire consequences for our image as a regional power and could pose much graver security threats. Their alliance in the footprint of the ancient songhai empire is not by accident, their fight is also ideological with the memory of Thomas Sankara being evoked.
For several years in recent times, we have seen both political and military leaders send patriotic soldiers to war illequiped and with very little remuneration while they reward themselves with vanities.
“We are still grappling with major insecurity as a result of the destabilization of Libya by France and its Allies, and because Africa did not present a United front, west africa is paying the price for that destabilization.
“Forget the fact that we have serious internal security challenges that is stretching our military, or the fact that our economy is in a parlous state, how does it make sense that Nigeria wants to lead an effort to spill the blood of people who are seeking emancipation?
“We must focus on a diplomatic solution. Nigeria cannot afford to be enmeshed in a war and we must stand against international destabilization of the region, if we don’t, it will be a mess we will eventually clean up and pay dearly for, ask Libya.”
2. Jeremiah Jackson (@drpenking)
DR Penking is a Twitter influencer and medical practitioner.
His real name is Jeremiah Jackson, and he has over 140,000 followers on the micro-blogging social media.
He is widely known for sharing health-related content before he switched briefly to tweeting in support of the Labour Party in the last election.
He tweeted the claim with a caption: “Niger Republic is now under serious military alert.”
The tweet has generated over 200 retweets and more than 1000 likes as of August 4, 2023.
Several individuals have since reacted differently to the shared video. But despite the misleading claim, the tweet remains on his post.
3. Chimaobi Nteoma(@chimaobi_nteoma), Labour Party ally
She also tweeted the video to her over 25,000 followers with the video with the caption : “Look at the soldiers Tinubu want to go and fight with Nigerian soldiers.”
The tweet has generated over 3,000 retweets and more than 6000 likes as of August 6, 2023. And here is the claim:
THE CLAIM
Video shows Nigerien army preparing for war against Nigeria.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
FactCheckHub started by examining the video’s content, which clearly showed the presence of Senegalese flags being erected and held by the military personnel seen in the video.
Checks further reveal that the video emerged from Tiktok and the account, @loileidulin that posted the video on Tiktok is a Senegalese account.
The video was captioned : Démonstration inedite des forces comandos de l’armée sénégalaise It was translated as: “Unpublished demonstration of the commandos forces of the Senegalese army.” This was done using the Google Translate.
These imply that contrary to the claim by the popular politicians, the footage was never that of the Nigerien soldiers but a mere demonstration by the Senegalese troops.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows troops of Nigerien army preparing ahead of clash with Nigerian army is MISLEADING, as findings by FactCheckHub show that video depicts the Senegalese army.
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.
