By Pascal Ibe 

Claim

Zoom Africa,  channel on X has shared a video of soldiers torturing a man and claimed it’s recent brutality.

Verdict

This claim is MISLEADING.

Checks showed that this very video appeared online first in September 2019. A press statement by the Nigerian army in November 2019,  coordinated it.

Full Text

A channel on X, Zoom Africa, has published a video of soldiers torturing a man.

In the video, the soldiers tied up and placed the man under fire and hit him with guns, stones, and others.

Zoom Africa shared the video and wrote, “The most horrific Video from Nigerian Army 😢😭💔

“Stop Army Brutality !!

https://twitter.com/zoomafrika1/status/1860790923589820777?t=b1bwgZrl9dpbvwlj_HOHjQ&s=19

The post generated over 470k views, 1.2 likes, and more than 600 reposts on X.

FACTWATCH observed this video was shared by the Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, in 2020.

This video was also shared in June 2021 and September 2024 here and here.

Verification

First, this Fact Checker subjected keyframes from the video to a Google image reverse search and discovered that three X users here here here first posted this video in September 2019.

@aisha_yaGuda who shared this video on 17 September, wrote, “I don’t know what he did to deserve this roasting!💔“

To confirm further, this Fact Checker did a keyword search, “ torture video by Nigeria soldiers 2019“, on Google search and found reports where the Nigerian army authorities vowed to investigate, apprehend, and sanction its personnel who are involved in professional misconduct such as extra-judicial killings and torture of suspects.

According to the statement dated 4th November 2024, the Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Sagir Musa(then), said that the decision was a sequel to a video reportedly showing some army personnel engaged in torture and extra-judicial killing of a suspected Boko Haram terrorist likely in the North-east.

He said that the army authorities had clearly and strongly condemned the actions of those involved in the misconduct.

In a similar report,  BBC stated that a video showing men dressed in army fatigues torturing and killing the victim was widely circulated on messaging apps in 2019.

See this story here 

Conclusion

Checks indicated that the video first appeared online in 2019 but has been recirculated by a channel on X as recently, therefore it’s MISLEADING.