Fact Check: Photo shared as evidence of Nigerian Army’s attack in Orlu is false

By Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi

Claim: A Twitter user, @Mariaeke posted a picture of military officers and  claimed that  Nigerian soldiers in a Hilux with Nigerian army logo are going street by street, killing innocent Nigerians in their homes.

Verdict:

Misleading and False. The picture is dated back as far as 2013.

Full Text:

A Twitter user, Mariam Eke (@Mariaeke) on January 25, shared a photo of men in Army uniform with the claim that the military officers are in Orlu town in Imo State, going street by street, killings innocent people.

As of January 26, the tweet has generated 691 retweets and comments and 841 Likes.

While several others are in support of the post, others fault the post, describing the post as “fake news”.

Verification

Using a reverse search image, Tineye, Dubawa findings reveal that the pictures have been used by several international media organizations as far back as 2013. Tineye indicates that the picture has been used on the internet  68 times.

On September 24, 2013, German media, NRLC used the same picture to report an attack 

In 2016, the Poetic foundation used the same picture to appraise the work on men and women in uniform who have fought for the nation and die in the process.

A United Kingdom online medium, Dailymail, in 2014, published an article of attack in a Kenyan Mall, and the same picture was used by the website. The picture was tagged; On patrol: Kenyan soldiers patrol near the Westgate mall, where sporadic gunfire continued to ring out early on Tuesday as the siege entered a fourth day. A sad event that left one 60 persons dead, Dailymail reported.

Similarly, on September 25, 2013, a Russian media, RBC also reported the sad incident, and the picture was used to tell the story as several eyewitnesses recount the sad event.

A German online media, Blick reported the sad incident in October 2019 in which the Kenya President explained further that the sad incident that happened has been averted. Blick used the picture as the lead picture with the tag, ” Terror in the supermarket: Army defeated the Nairobi hostage-takers”.

Conclusion:

The circulating picture of members of the Nigeria Army in Orlu going from street to streets killing innocent people is false and misleading.

The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with NewsWire,NGR to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country