By Pascal Ibe

Claim

An X user shared a video and claimed residents were celebrating the killing of a dreaded terrorist, Halilu Buzu and others by the Nigerian military on Thursday.

Verdict

Findings show that this video was first posted on YouTube on 2nd September 2024; it’s unrelated to the celebration of the killing of bandits in Zamfara.

Full Text

An X user, A Ayofe, on Friday shared a 28-second video showing locals in celebration.

The X user claimed that the jubilation was a result of the killing of bandits by the Nigerian military this week.

A. Ayofe wrote, “From the Northwest front.🔥
The people are celebrating the Military after a successful operation against Bandits❤️👏🇳🇬

The post by the X user generated over 12k views and more than 80 reposts.

Background

On Thursday, Troops of the Nigerian Army killed Halilu Buzu, a bandit kingpin who had been leading the charge in terrorizing Zamfara State communities.

According to Zagazola, a counter-insurgency expert, Halilu recorded a video on Thursday imploring Bello Turji, also a notorious terrorist, and his gunmen to concentrate their energy on security operatives and cease attacking harmless civilians.

“Kachallah Buzu made a video yesterday, calling on Turji, Dankarami, Dogo Gide and others to stop killing poor people and instead focus their fight against the military,” Zagazola tweeted. “He is the boss of Bello Turji.”

“Now, he has been killed by the same military in less than 24 hours.”

On Thursday bandits killed five policemen and three soldiers on Thursday morning in the same state.

These slain officers ran out of ammunition while engaging their attackers, making them highly vulnerable during the encounter.

Verification

When key frames from the video were subjected to Google Image reverse search, results showed that a YouTube channel named Jakadiya, first posted this same video on September 2nd, 2024.

The YouTube page captioned the video in Hausa Language, “Sojoji fa na bakin ƙoƙarinsu, a yaba ma su ko yaya ne.

FactWatch translated this from Hausa to English language using Google translator and it read, “As for the soldiers for their efforts, they should be praised no matter what.

Also, this Fact Checker discovered that this same video was shared on X by Dr_dabo1 on 5th September, 2024.

Conclusion

The video posted by an X user on Friday to show the celebration by locals after many bandits were killed by the Nigerian military on Thursday is MISLEADING.