By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

Students of Lassa Secondary School in Borno State, were the latest to be abducted by Boko Haram terrorists as insecurity in Nigeria remains unending.

Although media reports confirmed the rescue of over 10 students who were currently sitting for the National Examination Council, parents on Tuesday raised the alarm that over 36 students were still missing.

It has been over one month since the students, pupils and some teachers of the Oyo school were abducted by the terrorists and are yet to be freed. In Zamfara, there was a credible report of the abduction of students, with their fate uncertain.

These ugly incidents have continued to spark outrage and anger in the country, with many fingers pointing at the administration of President Bola Tinubu for its inability to deal with the issue of security, once and for all.

The current Tinubu-led government, to confront the insecurity in Nigeria, has made arrangements for the establishment of State Police, with the passage of the bill by the Nigerian Senate last week.

Opposition and citizens have not ceased to criticise the administration despite its efforts.

Claim

Some influencers on the X platform have published a video clip that claims to show a northern woman protesting over insecurity in the region and, at the same time, passing a vote of no confidence on President Tinubu.

One of the X users, @IdrisZekeriJnr posted the clip alongside the claim that a northern woman regretted voting for Tinubu and passed a vote of no confidence on the president

Another X page, @PO_GrassrootM posted the same video and wrote: “Baba, you have failed us. We voted with hope, but we are left with pain and hardship, and we regret voting for you.”
— Northern women Crîës out against Tinubu’s administration

The two posts on X have generated reactions from some Nigerians.

Verification

First, FACTWATCH Nigeria entered some of what the aggrieved woman said in the clip on Google and the results of the same posted on X and similar images shared on Facebook, popped up.

The results showed that the clip was from a protest in December 2021 by a northern coalition against incessant killings and abductions in the region.

The woman in the video, Zainab Ahmed, the leader of the coalition and a Kano-based activist, was referring to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, who was the leader of Nigeria then.

BBC Pidgin posted some images of the protest in December 2021 here.

To authenticate this, this fact checker found a report by Sahara Reporters, a US-based online newspaper, which reported that the Coalition of Concerned Northern Nigerian Groups staged a protest against rising insecurity in the North and other parts of the country in Abuja on 14 December

For their campaign, the protesters used the hashtags: #SaveTheNorth; #NorthernLivesMatter; #NorthIsBleeding; #SecureOurLives; # EnoughIsEnough; and #NoMoreBloodShed.

The co-convener of the protest, Ahmed, said the Buhari-led government has brought nothing but sorrow, killings and hardship on Nigerians since he was voted into office in 2015.

She said the Next Level campaign slogan of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which was used ahead of the 2019 presidential election, is synonymous with killing and hardship.

She expressed regret for supporting and using her social media platforms to garner votes for the reelection of the President in 2019.

Zainab said, “We are here to call on the Nigerian government that the North is bleeding and enough is enough. We are tired of burying our women, children, and men and our crops being razed by bandits.

“We are here to tell the government to secure our lives. We bury hundreds of people daily yet there is no action, not even ‘sorry’ from our leaders. We are here because we are angry. Because we are children of Baba Buhari, we feel that he has neglected us.

“We called on our followers to vote for Buhari in 2019 for the next level and this next level is killing us. We are dying; this is not what we voted for. We don’t deserve this, we deserve to live and have peace. North is bleeding, wake up, our leaders and save our lives.”

The ICIR also reported this story here.

Verdict

This claim is MISLEADING.

We found out that the video was from December 2021 during the late Buhari era and not recent.