Published 12th Mar, 2024

By Timileyin Akinmoyeje

A video purportedly taken after the Nigerian Army sacked the Kotangora forest and arrested terrorists has been circulating on social media, especially X, since March 11. In the video are men in military camouflage guarding a significant number of unarmed men sitting on the floor.

At the time of this report, this video had gathered more than 55,000 views from the posts of just two users. FIJ found that Alex Igwe and Jimmy Hulk-LP, two accounts with huge followings, had recirculated the claim. Jimmy Hulk-LP runs a verified X account.

The forest of kotangora in niger state was ransacked yesterday.. see the numbers of bandits brought out from the forest. pic.twitter.com/KgV6CQ4y8F
— Alex Igwe (@AlexIgwe15) March 11, 2024

Watch the number of bandits smoked out by the Nigerian military from Kotangora forests in Niger State recently. The level of insecurity in the country is rather scary. Bad economic management and maladministration of APC in the last 8 years, coupled with overpopulation and the… pic.twitter.com/UgixsPNGYn
— Olaudah Equiano® (@RealOlaudah) September 16, 2023

LET ME BE HONEST WITH THE NORTHAN LEADERS YOU HAVE FAILD YOUR PEOPLE.

The Forest of Kotangora in Niger state was ransacked yesterday.. see the numbers of Bandits brought out from the forest. *Nigeria is in TROUBLE*@officialABAT @KashimSM @ProfZulum @elrufai @atiku… pic.twitter.com/790zwW3hNo
— Wale S Akerele (@akerele_s) September 13, 2023

CLAIM: The video was made after the Nigerian Army raided Kotangora forest on March 10 and arrested a lot of terrorists.

VERIFICATION: FIJ found that this video, originally from TikTok, has been around on X for a while. All of the times this video was posted, the captions always suggested that it was from a recent arrest in Kotangora forest in Niger State.

For instance, FIJ found that X users Wale Akerele and Olaudah Equianoh posted the video with similar captions in October and September 2023, respectively. As of the time of this report, more than 54,000 people had viewed the posts from these two accounts.

Most importantly, however, a keyframe analysis of the video reveals that it was recorded after a Taraba State task force raided the Bali Local Government Area on August 20, 2023, to fish out illegal miners.

The task force, led by Jeremiah Faransa, a former brigadier-general in the Nigerian Army, reportedly arrested 3,500 illegal miners in Taraba State. In an interview after the raid, Faransa claimed that the miners were from different parts of the country and included foreigners from Mali, Senegal and Chad.

FIJ found media reports of the arrest here, here and here. FIJ also found a full video, including an interview with a supposed leader of the mining ring, published by TVC News in August 2023.

FIJ confirmed that the Ministry of Defence and the Nigerian Army did not release any statement of an arrest of such scale in Niger State. When FIJ called the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, however, he didn’t answer his calls.

CONCLUSION: The claim that the video is from a recent terrorist arrest in Kotangoa forest in Niger State is false.

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