A video showing an official of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) narrating how they gave bags of rice to bandits has surfaced online with a claim that the incident occurred under the current Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Presidency.
An X user, @aai_austin posted the video with a caption that read:
“Omo Nigeria Customs don dey pay bandits ransom with bags of rice. I don laugh tire this morning. Wtf!”
The post has generated over 140,000 views with more than 1,400 reposts and over 1,000 likes as of March 21, 2024.
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Another X user, @mazusafi, posted the video with another caption thus:
“Bandits are now official. As officers of the Nigerian customs offer seized bags of rice for amnesty. This is typically Tinubu’s Nigeria.”
The post has generated over 200 reposts and 180 likes as of March 21, 2024.
CLAIM
Video shows Nigerian Customs paying ransom to bandits under Tinubu Presidency.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
A keyword search on Google shows that the video has been online three years ago before Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected as the Nigerian president in the 2023 general election.
An earlier version of the video was posted by TVC News on March 10, 2021.
In the video, a senior official of the Nigeria Customs Service explained that the operatives of the Service offered seven bags out of 37 seized bags of rice to save themselves from the criminals.
The official who was identified as Aliyu Mohammed, who was the sector commander of the joint patrol team in the Northwest region, narrated how the operatives had to offer seven bags of rice to the bandits who were operating around Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area of Katsina state.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows a customs officer admitting to offering bags of rice to bandits under Tinubu Presidency is MISLEADING; the video has been online since 2021.
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.
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