A video circulating on social media platforms claims that protesters stormed the Emir of Ilorin’s palace in Kwara state, Nigeria, on Saturday, February 17, 2024. The protesters, who could be heard in the video chanting in Yoruba “Ebin papa ilu (the people in the city are hungry)”, were said to be expressing their frustration over the current economic situation of the country. The caption on the circulating video read “Breaking News: Serious protest at the Emir’s Palace in Ilorin Kwara State! ‘We are Hungry, The state is Hungry’”.
To verify the claim, The Explainer fact checker broke down the video into several keyframes by using screenshots and subjected some of the keyframes to the image reverse search engine. The search results showed that the same video has been trending on several social media platforms and blogs since 2021, indicating that it is not recent.
One of the Facebook blogs with the username ‘Glorious Biola That published the news in 2021 wrote
“Large crowd bombarded the Emir of Ilorin’s Palace to complain of hunger. “Ebi npa ilu” means, people are hungry. Genuine revolution may soon hit this country.”
The video showed the same scenes and chants as the one circulating in 2024, but with a different audio. The Explainer fact checker also found that the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman of the Kwara Traditional Rulers Council, Mai-Martaba Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari CFR, issued a statement through his spokesman, Mallam Abdulazeez Arowona, to debunk the video as a fabrication and a distortion of facts.
According to the statement, the video was actually recorded during the 2019 general elections, when some political parties staged a rally at the palace.
The statement, which was obtained by The Explainer, said that the video had nothing to do with the present economic challenges facing the nation, and that the Emir of Ilorin had always been concerned about the welfare and security of his people.
“The Emir of Ilorin has been at the forefront of supporting the government’s efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, and also to alleviate the suffering of the masses during the scarcity of Naira currency that affected everyone regardless of their social, political, and economic status,” the statement read.
The statement also urged the public to disregard the video and report any suspicious activity to the relevant authorities.
Further findings also show that the Kwara State Police Command has also dismissed the video as false and misleading. The Command, in a statement by the spokesperson, DSP Ejire Adeyemi Toun in Ilorin on Sunday, February 18, 2024, urged the public to disregard the reports and desist from aiding the peddlers of fake news by sharing the unverified information or content. The statement described the video clip as “the handiwork of mischief makers and subversive elements with criminal intent to disrupt the peace and harmony we enjoy in the state”.
“The viral video has been manipulated with another audio that clearly does not match the countenance of the people seen in the video. The viral video is the handiwork of mischief makers and some subversive elements with criminal intent to disrupt the peace and harmony we enjoy in the state,” the statement said.
The statement also warned that anyone found culpable of spreading false information would be arrested and prosecuted according to the law.
The verdict: False
The video of protesters at the Emir of Ilorin’s palace in Kwara state, Nigeria, is false and misleading.
It was not recorded in 2024, The video has been edited with a different audio and caption to create a false impression of the current situation in the country.