A pro-Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, has posted images showing weapons with a claim that they were seized by Biafra Resistance Fighters (BRF) during an intense clash where they purportedly neutralized some Nigerian policemen.
The post reads:
“BREAKING The Biafra Resistance Fighters has neutralised many terrorist @PoliceNG who came to kill Biafrans as usual, send them to God and recovered many weapons including explosives. We continue to demand total withdrawal of all Nigeria “security” forces from Biafra territory as they are all terrorists killing our women and children.”
The post has generated over 2,000 retweets and more than 2,900 likes as of February 9, 2024.
CLAIM
Photos show guns recovered by Biafra Resistance Fighters from operatives of the Nigeria Police Force.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
Findings revealed that the photos are old and taken out of context. We subjected the images to Google Reverse Image and here are our findings:
FRAME 1
A Google Reverse Image search conducted on the first photo shows that the image has been online since 2022.
An earlier version of the image was posted by Leadership newspaper on December 31, 2022, with a report indicating that they were guns recovered from the Boko Haram terrorists by the troops of the 199 Special Forces Battalion and the Civilian Joint Task Force.
According to the report, the troops eliminated six Boko Haram fighters after it sprang an ambush at the suspected crossing point of the terrorists on the eve of the New Year along Maiduguri-Damboa Road in Borno State.
FRAME 2
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the image has been online since at least 2017.
A report by Premium Times indicated that the image shows weapons recovered by the gallant troops of 202 Battalion, 21 Brigade in conjunction with the Mobile Strike Team (MST) in Borno during an operation launched against Boko Haram terrorists in November 2017.
FRAME 3
Checks revealed that the image has been online since 2018.
An earlier version of the image was posted here on October 10, 2018 by Air15.com, a leading global firearm web community for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
Further checks show that there was no recent credible media platform that reported the purported clash between the pro-Biafra group and operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
THE VERDICT
The claim that the images show weapons recovered by the Biafra Resistance Fighters from Nigerian policemen is MISLEADING; findings show that the images were taken out of context and unrelated to any purported IPOB activity.
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.
