A video showing vehicles engulfed by fire has resurfaced online with a claim that it shows vehicles conveying Nigerian policemen being set ablaze recently by gunmen in Nigeria’s South-East.
An X user, @AkparawaSunny, posted the video with a caption thus:
“So DPO jumped fence again today but this time the fence was too high for him to climb 🧗♀️ successfully.”
The video has garnered over 170,000 views, with more than 1,300 reposts and over 2,100 likes as of September 11, 2024.
Multiple X accounts also posted the same video with the same caption as seen here and here etc.
CLAIM
Video shows vehicles conveying police officers set ablaze in Nigeria’s South-East recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING, as the video is over 3 years old.
Our fact-checker subjected keyframes from the video to a Google Reverse Image search and the result shows that the incident happened in July 2021.
An earlier version of the video seen here and here indicated that the video showed the vehicles conveying the late billionaire Philip Udala and his entourage. They were ambushed on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at Eke-Agu Market junction in Abatete, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The unknown gunmen, according to a Punch report, were fleeing the community after attacking a police facility in the area when they met Udala’s convoy on their way and set his vehicles on a convoy ablaze.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the vehicles conveying some Nigerian policemen were set ablaze in Nigeria’s South-East recently 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.
