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Old Saudi Arabia drug-trafficking death row report resurfaces as new

Nurudeen Akewushola
Nurudeen Akewushola
Reading Time: 2 min.
screenshot of the viral post

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A video circulating on social media claims that Saudi Arabia recently released a list of Nigerians sentenced to death for drug-related offences and that no Igbo name appeared on the list.

The clip, posted by X user @uchechukwubiaf4, features an unidentified woman displaying screenshots of news reports to support her claim.

It was captioned: “Breaking News: Saudi Arabia just released the list of Nigerian names on the Kpai roll, and there’s not a single Igbo person among them. Yoruba, well done.”

As of August 6, 2025, the post had attracted over 1,600 reposts and more than 3,000 likes. The claim was also amplified by another X user, Ozorbig.

READ : Nigerian government debunks claims of Saudi visa ban

CLAIM

Saudi Arabia recently released a list of Nigerians on death row for drug offences.

screenshot of the viral post

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

A reverse search of one of the screenshots in the video traced it to a report  by TheCable originally published the report in April 2019. The story, also previously reported by Sahara Reporters, stated that 23 Nigerians were on death row in Saudi Arabia for drug-related offences.

The report said they were convicted under Saudi Arabia’s Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Control Law, which carries the death penalty. They were arrested between 2016 and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport, Madinah, for attempting to smuggle banned substances concealed in their bodies.

READ ALSO : No! Video does not show Wizkid performing in Saudi Arabia

Another screenshot used in the video, titled “Saudi Executions Soar To 17 In Three Days”, was sourced from a recent Channels TV report. However, that report did not indicate whether any of those executed were Nigerians or mentioned their ethnicities.

There is no official or credible evidence that Saudi authorities released any new list of Nigerians on death row  recently, or that the names or ethnicities of such individuals were made public.

Context:

The FactCheckHub has previously documented ethnic fault lines on X, where misinformation exploiting these divisions has spread widely. Such content as seen as seen here, here and here often misrepresents outdated events to inflame ethnic sentiments.

Such misinformation trends were previously projected to impact Nigeria’s information ecosystem in 2025.

The viral video fits this pattern: it misrepresents a six-year-old report as current and frames it within a false ethnic narrative.

VERDICT

The claim is MISLEADING because the list referenced is from 2019 and is being misrepresented as new.

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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 nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

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