Fact-Check: Were Photos of Recovered Weapons and Charms in Sunday Igboho’s House Posted on Facebook in 2013?
Claim: An unidentified individual in a viral video has claimed that the guns recovered from Sunday Igboho’s house during a raid on his facility are not real but extracted from a Facebook post dated as far back as July 8th, 2013.
Verdict: The Photos were uploaded in an album that Facebook compiled for a user, Rotimi Adebuji, in a collage to celebrate 5,000 pictures he has uploaded on his timeline since 2013. The photos had not appeared anywhere online before the Department of State Services (DSS) publicised them.
Full Text:
The Department of State Services (DSS) has launched a manhunt for Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba activist after he escaped arrest when they raided his residence in Oyo state.
Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman, said the security agency recovered illegal arms — including seven AK-47 rifles — and thousands of ammunitions from Igboho’s house.
The agency also paraded 13 supporters of the activist, who allegedly attacked DSS operatives during the raid on Thursday morning.
Igboho, a known Yoruba youth leader, has been agitating for the creation of ‘Yoruba Nation’.
He had planned to hold a rally in Lagos on Saturday to drive home his secessionist objectives before his house was raided.
Verification:
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PRNigeria undertook a Tineye reverse image search which checked over 48.1 billion images that didn’t find any matches indicating that the photos appeared anywhere online in the past. Also, a google reverse image search turned up results that show the images appearing online about four days ago when the DSS first shared them and all search results points to Sunday Igboho.
Furthermore, an examination of the profile of the Facebook user, Rotimi Adebuji, alleged to have shared the photo on his timeline since 2013, shows that the photos were cited in a collage that Facebook compiled for the said user to celebrate 5,000 pictures he has uploaded on his timeline dating back to 2013.
The photos had not appeared anywhere online before the Department of State Services (DSS) publicized them and were shared afterwards by the Facebook user. Dates of the photo on the said collage (from 2013 – date) shows that the photo was uploaded as recently as July 2nd.
A scroll down the photos in the collage from 2013 also reveals latest photos Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest photos where he wore Fendi.
It is therefore possible to have a Facebook collage/album which bears a former date but new photos with a recent date can be uploaded. A click on the photo and examination of the accompanying meta data description will reveal the date a post was uploaded.
Conclusion:
The claim that the pictures of weapons and charms in Sunday Igboho’s was initially shared on Facebook in 2013 is false and misleading and should therefore be disregarded by the general public.
The Album of the said Facebooker is from 2013, but posts on the same album from a former date can be seen with recently posted photos.
By PRNigeria
