PRNigeria Fact-Check: Did ‘Yan Agaji’ Threaten Christians in a Viral Video?
CLAIM: A viral post circulating on social media allegedly shows members of “Yan Agaji”, a group associated with Jama’atu Izalat al-Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS), demanding an AK-47 rifle to attack Christians worshipping in Enugu and kill more people in Jos.
BACKGROUND: The video features uniformed young men chanting in Hausa, with a translation alleging threats against Christian worshippers. The footage triggered outrage and calls for security agencies to investigate.
“Every Muslim is terrorist and is it not a new thing just that some of them haven’t gotten the opportunity to unleash the demon in them,” wrote an X account, @BlessingObasiu1
The Yan Agaji is a real volunteer and first-aid service arm of JIBWIS, with responsibilities including first aid, humanitarian assistance, crowd management and support during religious gatherings.
Information published by JIBWIS Nigeria on its official LinkedIn account documents its volunteers assisting pilgrims during Hajj operations, supporting their movement through airports and providing related services.
Because of the inflammatory nature of the video and the potential to ignite inter-religious tension, PRNigeria decided to investigate the video’s authenticity.
VERIFICATION: To verify the claim, PRNigeria’s fact-check team reviewed the viral post, media reports and information about the group identified through its uniforms.
The post which started trending on X 26 October , 2026, attracted 522,000 views, 946 comments and 2,700 reposts, while a related Facebook post recorded 44 likes and 88 shares, reflecting the widespread attention generated by the footage
In a report titled “Nigerians Demand Probe Over Viral Video of Boys Chanting Threats Against Christians,” Leadership reported the controversy and described the individuals as allegedly associated with the organisation’s Yan Agaji volunteer arm. Similarly, Daily Post and P.M. News reported the emergence of the footage and the reactions it generated.
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PRNigeria fact check then examined the video for possible synthetic clue. First, it manually examined the footage as posted on X and then conducted a frame-by-frame examination of key segments of the video using InVid. However, there were no clues to triangulate the original location of the video. Similarly, besides the uniform, there was no form of identification that could be spotted on either of the individuals in the video.
PRNigeria fact check then used Twitter Api to download the media directly to local file in order to extract its metadata and triangulate the origin, but that had already been stripped by social media.
The fact check team then ran the video through Hive Detector and other AI detection tools and also examine the given frame by InVid for AI clues and synthID watermarks, including facial-rendering assessment, lip-synchronisation checks, motion consistency, lighting and shadow analysis, audio continuity and compression, but did not determine that the video was AI-generated.
PRNigeria then moved to the next verification stage by conducting Boolean searches around the group and its umbrella body, but results overwhelmingly confirmed that the group’s existence does not establish that its members participated in or endorsed the alleged threats or similar ones.
PRNigeria fact check then contacted honorable Ahmad Muhammad, National Publicity Secretary of JIBWIS to confirm if the organisation had been able to track those in the video but the organisation denied that the individuals in the video were their members.
“Even the uniform is not entirely consistent with ours, for example, we usually carry our shoulder laynyard on the left, but these guys are carrying on the right side. We don’t know them and we rebuke them totally,” Honourable Ahmad said.
When contacted, Zakariyau Mukthar, a security and counter-terrorism expert, said the content of the video was inconsistent with JIBWIS ideology.
“I have been studying these groups for close to ten years, and JIBWIS is not known for this kind of violent radicalism. Such threatening messages are more commonly associated with Boko Haram and ISWAP, including threats against Muslims who do not support their ideologies,” Mukthar explained.
According to him, the video is nothing but a stage-managed activity meant to incite religious violence in the build up to Nigeria’s forthcoming elections.
“It’s clear that those guys were fed what to say,” he enthaused.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of JIBWIS, Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, has strongly condemned the viral video.
Reacting to the disturbing development, Sheikh Bala Lau called on the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force and other relevant security agencies to immediately investigate the incident, identify those responsible and ensure that anyone found culpable is brought to justice in accordance with the law.
The National Chairman categorically dissociated JIBWIS from the inflammatory statements, stressing that such expressions of violence, intimidation and threats against any community are completely alien to the principles, teachings and objectives upon which the organisation was established.
He emphasised that wearing the uniform of the JIBWIS First Aid Group or appearing among its members does not automatically establish that an individual is acting on behalf of the organisation or with its authorisation.
CONCLUSION: Yan Agaji is an established JIBWIS volunteer group whose recognised functions include first aid and humanitarian assistance, not the promotion of attacks on religious communities and there is no evidence to suggest that it officially sanctions such hate speech rhetorics by its members.
VERDICT: There is insufficient evidence to prove that “Yan Agaji” of JIBWIS demanded for an AK-47 rifle to attack Christians worshipping in Enugu and kill more people in Jos.
By PRNigeria
