An X user, @Goziedragon007 recently claimed that Nigerian soldiers were engaged in a gun battle with members of the Biafran group in Ohafia. The user posted two pictures, one being an image of an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) while the other is an image of a damaged military van with a caption that said 80 Nigerian soldiers had died during the gunfire exchange.
The caption reads: “BREAKING: Heavy Gunfire in Ohafia as Biafra Forces Clash with zoo Soldiers Heavy Sh00ting In Ohafia As Biafra Soldiers Clash With Nigerian Soldiers,80 zoo Soldiers dead so far while Biafra are losing unconfirmed 3 of our soldiers. The war is now offensively official.”
This claim posted on December 3, 2024, has reached over 15,700 people with several reactions. X user, @Tigatiga23 wrote in the comment section “Lol this picture don tey nah lol una to mumu,this picture na for 2021 for zamfara state so how come he come reach igbo land 😆,” while another with the handle @sidestone0 wrote “My prime minister @simon_ekpa incase Biafra Liberation Army need men abeg no hesitate to inform us oo. Men plenty wey wan involve for the struggle, especially me Cornerstone aka obembe wire wire. Na the red squared me go like join 🤲”
VERIFICATION
NV-A subjected both images through verification checks. The first image of an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) was uploaded on Google Lens and the exact image showed up dating back to May 2014. The first image was used by Vanguard newspaper with the title “Nigeria’s armed forces and the crisis of insurgency” while in May 2015, a blog, Naijaloaded used the same image for a story where the Nigerian army captured and destroyed 10 Boko Haram camps in Sambisa.
Verdict: FALSE
The second image showing a destroyed military van was uploaded on Google lens and the result returned several other copies of the image with the indicative dates showing that it was first uploaded in June 2019 on Facebook by a user, Rana24 without a caption. The picture was uploaded alongside pictures of damaged vehicles belonging to jihadist.
Verdict: FALSE
The Nigeria media is closely following the conflict between Nigerian and the Biafran group hence there would have been news reports if such an incident occurred. Our search however confirmed that there is no such news story of a gunfire exchange in Ohafia, Anambra state with 80 Nigerian soldiers dead
CONCLUSION
The claim that there was a gun duel between the Biafran group and the Nigerian troop is FALSE as both images uploaded have been online since 2014 and 2019. There is also no verifiable news report to confirm the claim.
