A photo of two Nigerian Army officers has been circulated on social media with accompanying caption that they were two brothers promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.
One of such posts archived here made by Olusoga Owoeye (@olusogaowoeye) on Twitter has garnered over 1000 engagements, including retweets.
The post read in part, “Two brothers, same parents from Bayelsa, both belong to the Artillery Corp[s] of the Nigerian Army, and they were both promoted to the rank of Major General today.”Â
THE CLAIM:
Two army officers who are brothers were both promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.
THE FINDINGS:
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is false.
A senior officer of the Nigerian army confirmed to the FactCheckHub that both officers Taritimiye and Teriworie in the viral photo are brothers.
Taritimiye Ayibakuro is the eldest of the two Gagariga brothers.
However, they were not promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.
The eldest, Taritimiye Ayibakuro Gagariga, was promoted to the rank of Major General several years before his younger brother, Teriworie, who got his promotion in December of 2021.
The viral photo in circulation was taken when the older brother graced his younger brother’s promotion decoration ceremony to Major General.
As of 2019, Taritimiye was already a Major General. Multiple reports when he led a fact-finding team on the Abonema killings addressed him as such.
In August and September 2021, different news reports also addressed him as a Major General.
THE VERDICT
The claim that two brothers, Taritimiye and Teriworie Gagariga, were promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day is FALSE.
