A video, purportedly showing Niger Republic’s finance minister, Ahmat Jidoud, crying over an order from a military junta to account for stolen funds within 48 hours, has been widely circulated online.
The video went viral on Saturday, July 29, 2023, spreading across various social media platforms and gaining significant attention from multiple news outlets, such as Sahara Reporters, Gambakwe media, Gistmania, Insiderhint, and others; as can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.
This is coming days after the country’s president, Mohammed Bazoum, was held by troops from the presidential guard on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Subsequently, the Nigerien soldiers declared a coup on national television.
Claim: Video shows the moment Niger Republic’s finance minister was crying over an order from the military junta to account for stolen funds within 48 hours.
Verification
The CDD War Room investigated the viral claim to confirm its veracity, and here is what we found.
An assessment of the viral clip revealed that the man shedding tears in the video was not Ahmat Jidoud, the minister of finance of the Niger Republic.
We identified the man in the video to be Marou Amadou, the country’s former minister of Justice, who served between 2011 and 2021, during the administration of former Nigerien president, Mahamadou Issoufou.
We further traced the video to a Facebook post made on December 27, 2021, which was captioned “Former Minister of Justice Marou Amadou under the magistracy of Issoufou. It was today 27 December 2021 at Bravia Hotel in Niamey.”
Verdict: FALSE
The CDD War Room confirms that the viral video purportedly showing the moment Niger’s finance minister, Ahmat Jidoud, was crying over an order to account for stolen funds, is an old video of the country’s former minister of justice, Marou Amadou. The video has been online since December 2021.