By Pascal Ibe

Claim

An X user, @VoiceofIgbos claimed that over 50 persons and 5 Nigerian soldiers were abducted in Oyo State by gunmen recently.

Verdict 

This claim is FALSE. A resident living told FACTWATCH Nigeria that she’s not aware of any such incident recently. Also, there’s no news report anywhere by a reputable organization in Nigeria that confirmed it.

Full Text

As one of the tribal bigots who engage in online banter to malign other tribes, especially the Yoruba ethnic group in southwest Nigeria, an X user, @VoiceofIgbos, has posted that over 50 persons and 5 Nigerian soldiers were abducted in Oyo State recently.

The user was reacting to a yet-to-be-confirmed report by Sahara Reporters that suspected herdsmen kidnapped over 30 civilians and 3 soldiers in Enugu on Sunday.

The user wrote, “BREAKING: 50 people have been kidnapped in Oyo state Yoruba land By Gunmen.

“5 Nigerian soldiers were also kidnapped. 

“State of Emergency has been declared across South West. The whole region is a crime scene from Skvll mining to kidnapping 

“Source: Nononsensezone

The post generated over 19k views, and more than 230 reposts, according to X analytics.

The Controversial Sahara Reporters Report 

On January 12, an online newspaper in Nigeria, Sahara Reporters published a story that suspected herdsmen kidnapped over 30 civilians and 3 soldiers in Enugu State.

However, FACTWATCH Nigeria found out that this report is self-contradictory, unclear, and yet to be confirmed by any authoritative source as of the time of writing this Check.

For instance, Sahara Reporters stated that an eyewitness who spoke to its reporter said the incident happened at Enugu-Ezike. The military signal obtained by the online newspaper showed that the incident happened at Enugu -Nsukka road.

A resident in Enugu, Chijoke Emmanuel told FACTWATCH Nigeria that the report by Sahara Reporters may be either false or exaggerated.

According to Mr Chijoke, Enugu-Ezike, and Enugu-Nsukka road are not very close to each other 

He said driving from Enugu-Ezike to Enugu-Nsukka road is a three-hour journey. 

Also, the military signal obtained by Sahara Reporters showed that the incident occurred on January 25th, and this is January 13th. The online earlier reported that the abduction took place on 9th January.

The police command and military authorities in Enugu State are yet to confirm this incident as of press time.

Verifying the X user’s claim 

First, the post that over 50 persons and 5 Nigerian soldiers were abducted in Oyo State by @VoiceofIgbos lacks critical details such as the dateline, the exact location of where it happened, eyewitness story account, and confirmation by any authoritative source in that State.

A resident in Oyo, Yemisi Johnson told FACTWATCH Nigeria that she was not aware of this incident 

When this Fact Checker contacted the Oyo State Police spokesperson, SP Adewale Osifeso said he was in a meeting. He directed this Fact Checker to send him an SMS, which he(Osifeso) has yet to respond to.

FACTWATCH Nigeria couldn’t find any statement by the Oyo police command  that confirmed this claim to be true when its X platform was checked.

No credible news report corroborated this claim.

Conclusion

Reacting to the story by Sahara Reporters, the X user deliberately made false claim about kidnapping in Oyo State.