A video showing angry youths reportedly vandalizing the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal has surfaced online with a claim it shows a recent riot by Nigerians of Igbo extraction in that country.
The video shows dozens of stick-wielding persons vandalizing cars, office equipment & fittings and desecrating the Nigerian flag reportedly within the premises of the Nigerian embassy in the Senegalese capital.
The video has a watermark that reads:
“Wild crowd of Ibo Biafrans attacked Nigerian embassy in Dakar Senegal, beat officials, loot, vandalized properties and torn the Nigerian flag.”
Ridwan Ajetunmobi (@Riddwane), a media aide to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu posted the video with a caption thus: “It’s a “regular trademark.””
His post has garnered over 100 reposts, more than 22,000 views and over 200 likes as of August 28, 2024.
Another X user, @NoNonsensezone posted the same video with another caption that read:
“Trending Video: A trending video circulating social media shows men from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria attacking an Embassy in Dakar Senegal, looting and Vandalising Properties.This Madness.”
The video has generated over 40,000 views alongside over 200 reposts with over 300 likes as of August 28, 2024.
CLAIM
Video shows Igbos attacking the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING as the video in question is not recent, nor does it exclusively depict people from the Igbo extraction.
The Igbo people are one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, concentrated in the Southeastern Nigeria. They can also be found in the South-South part of the country.
Our fact-checker observed that there’s a growing divide between members of the Igbo extraction and their Yoruba counterparts (majorly from Southwestern Nigeria) on X. This has fueled ethnic-motivated misinformation on the social media platform.
When our fact-checker subjected the keyframes from the video to a Google reverse image search, the result shows an earliest version of the video from March 2013 and not in 2024 as suggested by the recent X posts.
The video shows an attack on the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal. It was reported by Channels TV on March 9, 2013 as the issue was discussed at Nigeria’s House of Representatives chamber in Abuja by lawmakers then.
According to media reports, the attack on the Nigerian embassy was done amid the protest by Nigerians over the disappearance of a Nigerian citizen’s body from a hospital morgue.
Some aggrieved Nigerians had sought to retrieve the body of the deceased from the Senegalese authorities, only to find out that the body had been disposed of without informing the Nigerian community in that country.
There is no evidence to support the claim that the attack was carried out by Igbos alone. The video is being recirculated to mislead the public and inflame ethnic tension in Nigeria.
Similarly, there is no credible media report about any recent unrest or riot in Dakar, Senegal.
This is not the first time a video targeted at spawning ethnic tension in Nigeria would go viral on the X platform.
The FactCheckHub had earlier debunked a graphic video that surfaced online with a claim that it showed Igbos from Nigeria being killed for using people for money rituals in Mozambique. Our findings showed the incident occurred in Haiti and was unrelated to money rituals or people from Igbo extraction.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Igbos attacking the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal recently is MISLEADING; the video is from an unrelated event that occurred over 11 years ago.
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.
