Fact‑Check: Is the Viral Gunfire Video Really from a Bandit Attack in Makarfi, Kaduna State
Claim: A video circulating widely on social media shows intense gunfire and people scampering for safety while an unidentified voice issues frantic commands in the background. In the clip, the voice repeatedly shouts instructions such as: “Don’t go anywhere… gentlemen don’t go… don Allah kar ku gudu.”
Background: One of the social media pages that shared the footage, Hausawa, claimed the incident occurred in Makarfi town in Kaduna State, near Zaria. The post was accompanied by the caption: “Breaking: Bandits this night at Makarfi town, Kaduna State. Makarfi is close to Zaria city. You can hear people screaming and running for their lives in the video.”
The video quickly gained traction, with several other social media accounts reposting it and presenting it as evidence of a fresh bandit attack in the area, as seen here, here and here.
Banditry remains a major security challenge in northern Nigeria, particularly in the Northwest states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, and Kaduna, which have experienced repeated attacks in recent years.
Verification: To verify the claim, PRNigeria extracted key frames from the viral video and subjected them to reverse image searches using TinEye and other open-source verification tools.
The analysis revealed that the footage had been repackaged and recycled, with an audio overlay taken from a separate military incident in the Timbuktu Triangle area of Borno State that occurred on January 18, 2026.
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A longer version of the original clip, obtained by PRNigeria, showed that the voice heard in the viral video belonged to a soldier who appeared to be commanding troops during a military engagement with enemy forces. In the original recording, the commander can be heard shouting instructions after reportedly sighting a suicide bomber.
The soldier’s voice is heard saying: “Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un… suicide bomber, suicide bomber… don’t go, gentlemen don’t go… don Allah kar ku gudu.” The Arabic phrase translates to “Indeed we belong to God, and to Him we shall return,” typically uttered in moments of shock or distress.
The investigation found that this portion of the audio was extracted from the original footage and merged with a different video to portray it as a bandit attack in Makarfi falsely.
Verifying further by conducting keywords search, security and counter-terrorism analyst Makama Zagazola also debunked the claim, confirming that the audio originated from a previous military engagement involving troops of Operation Hadin Kai in the Timbuktu Triangle area of Borno State.
Official Confirmation
Further checks by PRNigeria showed that the Nigerian Army had earlier issued a statement confirming that troops of the Joint Task Force North-East under Operation Hadin Kai recorded operational successes during Operation Desert Sanity in the Timbuktu Triangle area.
According to the statement, troops destroyed several terrorist camps, recovered weapons and equipment, and repelled coordinated attacks by insurgents around 18 January 2026.
This timeline aligns with the original audio source used in the manipulated video.
Conclusion: The viral footage circulating online is not a recent bandit attack in Makarfi. Instead, it is a manipulated video in which audio from a past military engagement in Borno State was combined with unrelated visuals to create a misleading narrative.
Verdict: The claim that the video shows a bandit attack in Makarfi is Misleading. The content was deliberately altered and recycled.
By PRNigeria
