FACT-CHECK: Did Bandits Overpower Security Forces in Zamfara State?

FACT-CHECK: Did Bandits Overpower Security Forces in Zamfara State?

CLAIM: There is a circulating 1-minute and 34-second video featuring armed bandits chanting in front of a supposed military trucks. The terrorists in the video claimed that they had overwhelmed Nigerian security forces and destroyed military armoured vehicles in a recent attack in Zamfara State.

FULL-TEXT: The accompanying text to the footage reads, “These are Bandits in Zamfara. They overpowered the entire Nigerian security and destroyed Military armoured vehicles.”

Zamfara state continues to grapple with the menace of armed bandits, despite ongoing significant security efforts. These armed groups have inflicted heavy losses, causing thousands of deaths, displacing civilians, and disrupting economic activities in the region.

The bandits engage in kidnapping, cattle rustling, attacks on civilians andncreating a climate of fear and insecurity. 

The Federal and state governments have implemented various measures to combat the security threat. These include establishing a Security Trust Fund to finance security initiatives and deploying security personnel to patrol highways and vulnerable areas.

VERIFICATION: PRNigeria conducted a keyword search utilising the Chrome tool—custom range from 1st January 2024 to February 29th, and the results revealed that there were no recent attacks on military Base leading to the destructions on military trucks in the state. 

PRNigeria reached out to defence intelligence and  information sources who corroborated the findings of the search results.

PRNigeria fact check desk then broke the video into image keyframes and ran a reverse image search. 

Results show that  Premium Times, Channels Television and Daily Post in early February reported that Several bandits, two soldiers and a mobile police officer were killed during a fight that ensued after the outlaws attacked a security camp in Zamfara State.

The terrorists had attacked security personnel stationed at the Government Day Secondary School, Dauran in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state.

Furthermore, EmergencyDigest reported that bandits allegedly killed a Divisional Crime Officer in charge of Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State and burnt the police station in the community.

Further deep check lead fact checker to a last years report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) which covered how bandits  suspected to be loyalists of a notorious kingpin Gwaska Dankeremi attacked a Military base in in Zormi local government area of Zamfara state where three soldiers were killed. 

The ICIR reported that the attacks occurred in the afternoon of Tuesday, December 12, 2023.

“The attack lasted from 4 pm to 6:30 pm during which four patrol vehicles of security operatives, including a military armoured personnel carrier (APC), were destroyed.”

Images and location in the ICIR’s report corroborates an aftermath of the incidence and patrol vehicles including Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) that were burnt to ashes. 

It is this attack that is being passed off as a recent one on social media. 

Zamfara based Zonal Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (North West), Abdulrazak Bello Kaura corroborated this. 

“It happened on the 12th December, 2023 at ZURMI town, Zurmi LGA of Zamfara State,” Kaura told PRNigeria after reviewing the footage shared with him on WhatsApp.

CONCLUSION: Based on the facts gathered by PRNigeria, there were no recent clashes between bandits and the Nigerian military that led to the burning of military patrol vehicles and armoured personnel carriers.

Meanwhile, the footage of destruction of military vehicle was not from any recent attacks but  traced to December 2023.

Therefore, PRNigeria, concludes that the claim that there was a recent attack leading to the destruction of military vehicles in Zamfara state  is Misleading. 

By PRNigeria