A video showing the looting of a warehouse has been widely shared across several groups on WhatsApp with the claim that it happened during the ongoing nationwide #Endbadgovernance protests in Nigeria.
The nationwide protest over economic hardship in the country commenced on Thursday, August 1, 2024, as aggrieved youths took to the streets with placards bearing different descriptions, including “End Bad Governance” and “There is Hunger in the land.”
The first day of the protests turned violent in some parts of the country, including Kano and Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Claim: Video shows the looting of a warehouse during #Endbadgovernance protests in Nigeria.
Verification
The CDD War Room subjected the video to verification and here is what we found.
A Google Reverse image search revealed that the video had been online long before the #Endbadgovernance protests began. We found that the video was posted on LinkedIn, Nairaland, and YouTube in March 2024, accessible here, here and here.
The video, uploaded on YouTube by Alert Hub Studios on March 6, 2024, was captioned “Hunger in the land. Another food warehouse looted in Abuja.”
Further research via keyword search found multiple credible reports stating that the government warehouse located in Tarsha 2, Gwagwa area of Abuja was looted by some residents on Sunday, March 3, 2024, over the hike in food prices. The same warehouse was reportedly looted during the COVID-19 crisis.
Verdict: FALSE
The CDD War Room found that the incident depicted in the viral video happened in March 2024, four months ago, when some residents broke into a government warehouse in Abuja. It has no correlation with the ongoing protests calling for an end to bad governance.