Is This A Recent Video Showing Nigeria Security Agents Shooting At Unarmed Protesters?

A verified X handle posted a 42 seconds video, claiming that unarmed protesters are being shot by Nigerian security personnel. The post is captioned, “This is Nigeria Security Officers against Unarmed Protesting Civilian, You will never see them in thesame spirit against Bandits, terrorist and Herdsmen😂😂🤣”

When this report was published, the post had about 42,400 views and over 480 replies, reposts, quotes, likes and bookmarks. In the comment section, @JosephOrga1812 said “Is Nigeria not a disgraced country?” while @OCblack127 wrote “You can never see a video like this on bandits”.

VERIFICATION

NV-A took screenshots from different angles of the video and subjected them to reverse google image search and the result shows that the video came into public space on October 21, 2020.

An analysis of the timings various accounts posted the video indicated that it may have first appeared on the handle of @AdebayOrisirisi, on X, Other social media handles on X and Facebook shared the video on the same day, with write-ups accusing the government of shooting at protesters. Vanguard and P.M. NEWS also circulated the video in their report

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force, has been widely accused of abuse, including reports of extortion, torture, extrajudicial killings, and profiling young Nigerians based on how they look, what they drive, or what they wear.

The accusation against SARS led to a nationwide protest in October 2020 after a viral video showed men, allegedly SARS officers, dragging two young men from a hotel; one was shot. Protesters’ demands went beyond just disbanding SARS, they called for justice for victims, accountability, reform, and compensation. In response, the government announced SARS would be disbanded and replaced with a new unit called Special Weapons And Tactics,SWAT.

Human Rights Watch documented that between October 7–20, 2020, when the nationwide protest happened, security forces used apparent excessive force such as tear gas, water cannons, and live fire against protesters. The Lagos judicial panel later called the event a “massacre,” saying soldiers and police shot into a crowd of peaceful protesters. The panel identified at least 96 unidentified corpses which autopsies were conducted on.

CONCLUSION

The video is MISLEADING. The event happened during the “End SARS” protest in October 2020, when security agents used excessive force on protesters. It is not a recent event.