Soldiers Beating Abia Man in Viral Video After Killings of Colleagues? Fact Emerges
- The video of alleged soldiers beating an unarmed civilian in Abia state has been fact-checked
- An X user had claimed that officers in the viral video were men of the Nigerian army and that the incident happened in Abia
- The video was shared amid a report of tension in Abia state following the massacre of army officers by some unknown gunmen
The viral video of soldiers beating a man in Abia following the brutal killing of five military officers in the southeast state has been confirmed to be old, as claimed by those who shared the video on social media.
An X user, @Chiditweets042, shared the video on his page where some angry soldiers were seen beating a young man in Abia state.
Source: Twitter
The video was shared amid the fear of reprisal attacks about five soldiers killed by the unknown gunmen.
Why people scared of military attack in Abia
On May 30, 2024, about five soldiers were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked soldiers in Aba, the commercial epicentre of Abia State, in Nigeria’s southeast region.
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The video was captioned:
“What is going on in Abia State? Will the Nigerian Army try this up North?”
In the video, which lasted for 22 seconds, three soldiers were ordering a young man to “shut his eyeballs,” referring to him as a “bastard”. One of them slapped him.
Dubawa, a fact-checking organisation, fact-checked the claim and discovered that a similar context had been posted on different social media platforms. The video has gotten engagements on different platforms.
Why video of soldiers beating civilian is fake
A check on the source of the video clip indicated that it had been posted on Facebook, here and here. Similar to the accounts' contexts, the video mostly became popular in 2019.
One of the persons who shared the video, Oghidi Kingsley Osh, gave the details of how the Nigerian Army denied the claims, adding that the assailants, who visibly dressed in army uniform while beating up the unarmed man, were renounced and denied by the military.
Also, The Punch, in its report, quoted the military authority saying that the uniformed men in the video are not connected to the Nigerian Army. According to the army, the clip is “most likely fake”. The report was made in 2019.
In the report, Sagir Musa, the army spokesperson, explained that the camouflage the officers in the video wore was no longer in use and that the men could be impostors.
However, the Punch did not report anything about the incident in the video, which was alleged to have happened in Abia state. Also, no credible media reported the incident linked to the South East state.
Soldiers killings: DHQ vows retaliation on IPOB
Legit.ng earlier reported that the Defence Headquarters had vowed a fierce retaliation against the killing of five soldiers in Abia state by the proscribed IPOB group.
According to the military, the killing of the soldiers will bring overwhelming military pressure on the IPOB terrorist group.
Maj-Gen. Edward Buba, the director of defence media operation, made this known in a statement on Friday, May 31.
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Source: Legit.ng
