On May 16, 2024, an X user user (formerly Twitter) tweeted a video with the caption “BREAKING:
Not 1
Not 2
Not 50
But 500
500 people have been kidnapped in Zurmi LGA, Zamfara State.
And not a single word from the Governor or the Presidency.
Families around that region can be seen migrating to unknown destinations, in an attempt to run away from the attackers.”
As of the time of this report, the video, attached to the tweet has garnered over 519,000 views.
Claim I: Did Kidnappers kidnap 500 people in Zurmi LGA of Zamfara State?
Verification: ALL WE KNOW
The CDD War Room found that the claim of 500 people being in captivity of kidnappers, popularly called bandits, was made by Bello Hassan Shinkafi, a member representing Zurmi and Shinkafi Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
While speaking with BBC Hausa Service on the incessant attacks on the people of Zamfara State, especially his constituency, he said, “Over 500 persons are currently in the custody of the bandits, and only God knows the trauma and horrible experiences they are passing through there.” He added that “over 50 villages in the LGA have been sacked by the bandits and its people forced out of their ancestral lands to different Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.”
The CDD War Room also found a press statement by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), released by Major General Edward Buba, the director, of Defence Media Operations in response to the viral claim. He described the claim as ‘fictitious’ and clarified that only four persons were abducted from the Zurmi community and not 500 as widely circulated.
Major General Buba added that the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji were actively fighting a vicious enemy in a complex combat environment. He added that update on kidnapping on “social media was more of fictitious figures and extreme exaggeration of the situation on the ground.”
Claim II: Does this video show Zurmi people migrating to an unknown location after 500 of them were kidnapped?
Verification:
The CDD War Room found that the earliest version of this video was uploaded in June 2021 by Aljazeera, showing over 7,000 families fleeing to Sebba after attackers killed 138 people in Solhan village of Burkina Faso.
We found that the video went viral in Nigeria in April 2022 with the claim that “ residents of Shiroro LGA, Niger state, were allegedly fleeing from bandits.” Since then, several versions of the video have gone viral with different claims.
Therefore, the CDD War Room can confirm that the video attached to the claim is false and was not retrieved from Zurmi LGA in Zamfara State.
Verdict: FALSE
The video attached to the claim is false. We found that the video dates back to June 2021; it is a report of how over 7,000 families were seen fleeing Sebba in Solhan village of Burkina Faso.