Fact-check: Did Christians Protect Muslims while praying During EndBadGovernance Protest in Jos?
A viral image circulating online and across various social media platforms claims that Christians guarded Muslims while they were praying during the EndBadGovernance protest in Jos, Plateau State, on Thursday.
The picture shows people praying with a caption, “Christians are guarding Muslims while they observe Zuhr’s prayer at the protest ground in Jos.”
The picture has since triggered different reactions on social media as Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) noted, “These are the only pictures of peaceful protests I saw. The rest are either looting or destruction.”
Additionally, @PIDOMNIGERIA commented, “Christians guarding Muslims to pray in Jos, at the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest ground. Without politicians, we all can live in peace. Nigerians are peace-loving people.”
However, PRNigeria fact-checkers investigated the claim using reverse image and keyword searches and found that the image has been circulated by various online media and bloggers with similar captions.
One of such social media page is:
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“Christian protesters protect their Muslim …
“A photo of Christian protesters protecting their Muslim counterparts as they observed their prayers on the road in Jos, Plateau state has gone viral. The protes…”
Similarly, another popular mainstream media has a different caption:
“Security agents protecting protesters in Jos – Report.
“…….however, some of the Muslims turned the protest ground into prayer grounds as their Christian counterparts created spaces for them to pray.
As reported by Vanguard, “The Commander of Operation Safe Haven, OpSH, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar was spotted encouraging troops of the Operation to keep the rules of engagement, protect the protesters, and ensure the peace in the State is not jeopardized.”
Despite these claims, PRNigeria fact-checkers found that security agents, including police and military personnel, were responsible for protecting protesters, not Christians guarding Muslims.
Intensive investigation revealed that Christians created space for Muslims to pray, but they were not guarding them as widely purported. Security agents were responsible for protecting protesters.
While the image is genuine, the claim is partially true. Christians created space for Muslims to pray, but they were not guarding them.
PRNigeria fact-check team therefore concludes that the claim is partially true in context and not necessarily misleading.
