AN X user, @UchePOkoye, has shared a video of people protesting on the streets alongside a claim that it is the protest against an alleged fraudulent election in Venezuela.
In the 40-second video which was taken from an aerial view, people could be seen marching on the streets in protest.
READ: Old video of Kano incident used to depict ‘hunger’ protest in Abuja
The video post was captioned thus:
Venezuelans are the street fighting against the fraudulent election. In Nigeria, we are waiting for Pitaobi.
The post has garnered over 200,000 views, with more than 7,000 likes and over 3,000 reposts as of August 6, 2024.
Similarly, another X user, @Urchilla01, shared the same video with a different caption that read:
This is Venezuela. They’ve poured out and filled up the streets because their sitting president dared to tamper with their mandate. They did not wait for anyone to spur them on. They took the initiative & took to the streets. Power belongs to the people. Again, if your government isn’t afraid of you, you’ve failed in your duties as a citizen. If your government thinks of taking an anti-people action and isn’t terrified of what your reaction to such action could possibly be, you haven’t started being an active citizen. Fellow Nigerians, go out and strike fear & terror into the hearts of the very few people who have sworn to make your life a living hell. The Nigerian armed forces, which comprise the army, navy, and airforce, have a population of less than 300,000. The Nigerian police force has a population of less than 400,000. The civil defence has a population of less than 20,000 operatives. The DSS has a population of less than 200,000. The public office holders are less than 300,000 in number. That’s a combined total of less than 1.5 million people (being very gracious with the numbers here) holding down a population of over 200 million! Is Nigeria an animal farm??!! Your slavery and subjugation are only in your minds and your heads! Go out and remind them who pays their salaries. Go out and remind them at whose pleasure they serve. Go out and remind them that their tenures end the day you say so. Go out and remind them that the office of the citizen supercedes every other office in the land. Go out and reclaim the land that was promised to you and your offspring! A land flowing with milk and honey; milk and honey that have been cornered & plundered by a select few while your children go to sleep hungry at night! Remind them that their wives, husband’s, and children will not feel safe in their homes and their beds unless they do right by the people they’re sworn to serve. Enforce judicial reforms! Enforce electoral reforms! Enforce legislative reforms! Fucking take back your country!
The post has also gained a significant traction with over 89,000 views plus over 1,300 likes and more than 1,000 reposts.
Multiple X users have also posted the same video with varying captions as seen here.
The BBC on July 30, 2024 reports that protests broke out in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, a day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in the recent election held in the South American country.
The opposition has refuted Maduro’s victory, claiming that the vote count was rigged and that 73.2% of the total votes cast showed that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won handily.
The video is trending on social media, especially on X amidst the ongoing ‘End Bad Governance’ protests that engulfed Nigeria since August 1.
Media reports on Thursday (August 1) indicated that the #EndBadGovernance protest kicked off in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Borno, among other Nigerian states.
The ICIR is providing LIVE UPDATES from the scene of the protests across Nigeria here.
CLAIM
Video shows Venezuelans protesting over election recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING, as the video is from a 2017 Venezuelan protest and unrelated to recent event.
A Google Lens search conducted on some screenshots retrieved from the video displayed multiple thumbnails of the same video previously posted on various social media platforms.
But an earlier version of the video was uploaded on X (formerly Twitter) by Mariana Atencio, an America-based Venezuelan Journalist on April 20, 2017.
“This is what the protests in #Venezuela look like. Imagine this 40 sec. happening for hours. #19A,” the caption on her X post read.
The search led our fact-checker to another version of the video posted on YouTube by an Argentina-based newspaper, Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata, on April 20, 2017.
Recall that a series of protests engulfed Venezuela for over 3 months in 2017, Aljazeera reported.
READ: Video of February demonstration in Ibadan used to depict planned August protest
An explainer published by Aljazeera in March 2018 explained the genesis of the Venezuelan crisis which has repeatedly led to multiple protests as Maduro-backed supporters and government forces clashed with the oppositions in the country intermittently in the last 7 years.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Venezuelans protesting over a recent election is MISLEADING; the video is over 7 years old and not related to recent event in the country.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
