A picture of a traffic light is making the round on social media with the claim that it was looted during the #EndBadGovernance protest in Kano state.
The account that shared the picture claimed that the allegedly looted traffic light is being used as a bulb in one of the protesters’ home.
The image was posted by one Balogun Olamilekan on Facebook with the caption: “Person wey loot traffic light for Kano done use am do bulb for house.” The caption was accompanied by laughing emojis.
The post has over a thousand likes and 1200 shares.
The 10-day protest against economic hardship in Nigeria began last Thursday across states.
The protest has been peaceful in the south-west, however, violence and looting were recorded in the northern part of the country.
In Kano, the newly built Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) industrial park was attacked and raided by protesters.
The looters made away with desktop computers, chairs, keyboards, and other appliances.
Shops and warehouses were also looted in some parts of the state.
Some of the pictures of the protest from Kano that circulated online showed protesters destroying a traffic light in an area in the state.
VERIFYING THE CLAIM
Checks by TheCable showed that the circulating traffic light image is different from the one that was destroyed during the #EndBadGovernance protest in Kano.
Using Google Lens, it was discovered that the traffic light image has been online since 2023 and was shared by a Facebook account named GhettoSpy.UG on December 22, 2023.
It was also shared by @SchefferMB77625 on Twitter on December 23, 2023, with a Swahili caption that read: “Nitafutieni customer wa hii stuff.”
The phrase means “Find me a customer for this stuff”.
Several pictures of the same image in different contexts were also found online.
For instance, the image was found in NAIROBI WIRE, a Kenyan publication, under its humour/social media category titled ‘The Trending Memes and Tweets This Thursday’.
The news medium shared the image alongside other pictures on January 23, 2024.
In addition, the colour of the traffic light is different from the one looted during the protest. The one that was looted in Kano has a black body with silver-framed lights while the image from Facebook is coloured yellow.
VERDICT
The viral picture being shared on Facebook is different from the one that was vandalised and looted during the #EndBadGovenance protest in Kano.
