Some images showing corpses portrayed as victims of recent bandit attacks in Sokoto state have been circulated on social media.
The north-west state has witnessed a series of bandit attacks lately, which have claimed many lives.
On December 6, about 23 passengers were burnt to death in a bus attack in the state. A few days after, the bandits also returned to a village where they abducted many residents and killed two people.
The images shared on Twitter and Facebook showed a lineup of some Muslims performing burial rites on corpses, while the other showed a burnt area.
A Twitter user, @DrHalimah with 1,926 followers, posted the images on December 10 with the caption: “The Sokoto Killings by Bandits. If you are a Muslim and Online, Please Retweet this for the Sake of this Friday”. The post has generated over 1,000 retweets and 800 likes.
https://twitter.com/drhalima_/status/1469198713386160131?s=21
A Facebook user, Hyshat Haruna, also posted the photos with the caption “The Sokoto Killings by Bandits If you are a Muslim and Online, Please Share this. ”
BUT ARE THESE IMAGES NEW?
To verify the pictures shared by these social media users, TheCable subjected the images to reverse image search on multiple search engines.
IMAGE 1
The photo appeared on the news website of Vanguard newspaper. A 2019 article on the platform contains the image with the caption “Zamfara killings”. Another news website that posted the photo in 2014 gave credit to Vanguard.
IMAGE 2
The photo was posted by BBC pidgin with the caption “Zamfara Goment” in May 2020 and was attached to a report on the killing of some villagers in Sabon Birni LGA of Sokoto state.
IMAGE 3
The third picture is from the burial of about 36 persons killed by bandits in Birane village in Zurmi LGA of Zamfara state in February 2018.
IMAGE 4
The fourth image shows the mass burial of about 43 rice farmers killed by the Boko Haram terrorists in Zabarmari village in Jere LGA of Borno state in 2020.
VERDICT: Findings showed that the images being shared on social media platforms do not have a connection with recent bandit attacks in Sokoto.
