A video has been shared multiple times on social media alongside a claim that it shows a gruesome attack on Nigeria’s northern community in Oyo state.
This video surfaced online at the heat of the Hausa/Yoruba clash reported in Oyo state on Friday, February 12, 2021, which led to the trending of the hashtag #StopKillingNortherners on Twitter, the following day.
Multiple Twitter users shared the videos reportedly to call attention to the ongoing crisis in Oyo state, South-western region of Nigeria.
A Twitter handle @SirTafawaBalewa shared the video with the following texts: “#StopKillingNortherners in Oyo State. Enough is Enough!”
The video which was also shared by @Am_Saleem and @El_abdool shows people lynching a number of men on the allegations that they were Fulani herdsmen caught with guns and weapons.
Despite pleas from other individuals within the mob discouraging the hoodlums to avoid jungle justice, the victims or some of them or there belongings were later set ablaze as fire could be seen in some of the videos.
The action has, however, been criticised by most people on the threads.
THE CLAIM
The video shows the attack on northerners in Oyo State following the Hausa/Yoruba clash in Shasha community, Akinyele Local Government Area.
THE FINDINGS
Multiple searches conducted by the FactCheckHub traced the video to Edo state and not Oyo State as alluded in the viral tweets.
One of the earliest time it appeared on the internet was on February 11, 2021, where the suspects were reportedly caught with rifles and other weapons.
The person narrating states that the incident happened around Upper Ekenwan in Benin City, Edo State.
A version of the video was also found on a Facebook story by Sanmi Oje. The location was identified as Edo state. “Edo state is no longer safe,” says an unidentified narrator in the video.Even though the videos were taken from different angles with different commentators, they were from the same incident as the same cars, rifles appeared. From the videos, people can be seen recording the incident with their smartphones; this explains why there are different versions of the incident from different angles.
In addition, the language spoken in the video is not Yoruba but Pidgin English peculiar to natives of Southern Nigeria majorly and also Bini, a native language spoken in Edo State.
The Oyo clash between the Hausa and Yoruba was reported to have started on February 10, 2021 but escalated by the evening of February 12, 2021.
This implies that the incident shared in the claim had occurred before the escalation of the Oyo ethnic clash that led to the destructions at Shasha in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State.
This incident of men who are suspected to be from Fulani descent caught with arms in Edo state is however, different from the one which happened on February 10, 2021. In this instance, they were caught by security operatives. The commentator in a video posted on YouTube says it happened at Ekenwan barrack, in Edo State.
This was also reported by the News Guru.
Furthermore, Chidi Nwabuzor, the spokesperson for Edo State Police Command confirmed to the FactCheckHub that the incident took place in Edo state.
He said, “The incident happened in Ogede Community, Ovia South-West, Edo State. Four persons were involved and they were alleged to have been caught with firearms and they could not give reasons why they bear arms. They were not with any government recognised security organisation”.
There have been other reported cases of mob lynching in the state. Suspected armed robbers, native doctor, phone thieves were reported to have been meted with jungle justice.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows attack on northerners in Oyo State following the Hausa/Yoruba clash in Shasha, Akinyele Local Government Area is FALSE. This is because the video predates the Oyo incident.
