Claim: A video which purportedly showed terrorists attacking a military checkpoint close to Zuma Rock along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway penultimate Thursday had gone viral.
Verdict: The claim is false. The location of the video could not be ascertained as the verification tools used, eyewitness account of the event and background of the video did not match description of the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
Full text
Following the terrorist attack on a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Abuja, a video has been widely circulated online to indicate the audacity of the terrorists that carried out the attack.
The two minutes video, which showed dozens of fighters engaging in sporadic shooting with their targets not visible was also posted by a prominent newspaper in the country, The Sun Nigeria, on its Facebook page.
The video, which is the most popular video on its page, garnered over 2000 views and was shared more than 4,000 times. It was captioned “3 terrorists killed in shoot out with soldiers of 102 Guards Battalion. Soldiers from 102 Guards Battalion Friday, killed three members of the Boko Haram group, who attacked a military checkpoint mounted in front of the Zuma Barrack along the Abuja/Kaduna expressway.”
Background
On July 29, terrorists believed to be members of Boko haram, engaged the military personnel stationed at a checkpoint at Zuma Rock along Abuja-Kaduna highway with eyewitnesses saying one soldier was killed while others were wounded.
The incident was the latest attack on the military personnel in the capital territory following the Kuje jailbreak and ambush of a contingent of the Presidential Guard in Bwari which claimed lives of military personnel.
The events have led to concerns among residents on how safe Nigeria’s seat of power is and further exposed the weakness of Nigeria’s intelligence agencies to forestall terrorists’ attacks in the country.
Verification
In a bid to determine where the video was shot, a key frame analysis on an online verification tool, Invid, to know whether the already exist on the internet did not bring up any result, indicating the video is new but the scene in the video gave some clue to show it was not shot in Abuja.
The video showed the attack took place on a deserted road with scanty tress planted at its corridor while a stretch of sand can be seen dominating the land in the location, Thus, giving the impression it was shot in a desert area. This is unlike the Zuma rock axis which is populated while some areas have vegetation that can be linked to the rainy season.
Similarly, the road in the video was one lane but the Abuja-Kaduna expressway has two lanes. The timing of the video showed it was shot in day time but eyewitness accounts said the attack happened in the night around 7.30pm.
Also, the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway is a busy road that served as an artery that connects travellers from the southern part of the country to the north and despite cases of security breaches, it witnesses lots of traffic.
In the video, the terrorist had motorcycles which they later used to pursue their adversary when they gained superior firepower but for the Zuma attack, Daily Trust had reported that the attackers were seen alighting from a gulf car before shooting at the military personnel.
Conclusion
The video which is being circulated as the terrorists’ attack on a military checkpoint in Zuma rock axis is not true as the background in the video did not match its description.
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