An X user, @obongattahikang, has posted a video showing a throng of people holding sacks and shovels to unearth buried frozen chickens from a pit with a claim that they are people from Igbo extraction struggling to feed due to current Nigeria’s economic hardship.
He posted the video on X with a caption that read:
“Igbos will be quick to insult people for being hungry, but look today in Igboland as they dig out the dead bodies of chickens that were discarded and buried because of massive hunger in Igboland.”
The post has garnered some traction on the X platform with over 180 reposts as of September 12, 2024.
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CLAIM
Video shows people from Igbo extraction digging out buried frozen chickens from a pit due to hunger in Nigeria recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING, as the video has been online since 2015 and unconnected to the present economic hardships in the country.
Our researcher subjected keyframes in the video to a Google Reverse Image search, and the results show that the video has been on the internet since November 2015. An earlier version of the video can be seen here and here.
The video depicts an incident that happened on November 5, 2015, at Onne Ports in Rivers State, where residents of Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers looted tonnes of chickens seized and buried by the Nigeria Customs Service, UrhoboToday.com reported.
The service had earlier dug out a canal in the site and buried cartons of frozen chickens they seized at the port. The chickens were brought in six containers, emptied and buried before the customs officials left, according to this media report. Both media reports above didn’t state that the residents who exhumed the buried chicken were from Igbo extraction.
Vanguard reported that the residents stormed the site with shovels, pans, basins and buckets to loot the chickens and take it home for consumption. The media report also didn’t explicitly state that the residents are from a particular tribe in Nigeria.
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Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed fuel subsidy in May 2023, the cost of goods and services have skyrocketed across the country, leading to widespread hunger and frustration among the citizens.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows people from Igbo extraction digging out buried frozen chickens due to hunger recently is MISLEADING; the video has been online since 2015.
