CLAIM: US President allegedly said Biafrans are not worthy of a country.
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE: There is no official word in the press to corroborate this claim. Moreover, there is no country known as Biafra at the moment; therefore there cannot be a statistic to show Biafrans have been imprisoned all over the world.
FULL TEXT:
On August 23, a Facebook user in a post attributed the quote below to the US President.
“They have a History of Criminality with more of them in Almost every Country jail in the world. So I Don’t think (BIAFRANS) are Worth Enough to Ecquire (sic) a Country of Their Own.” – US President Donald J . Trump. (allegedly)
VERIFICATION
Findings show no notable reports from credible platforms regarding this claim. Moreover, the post did not state which occasion/platform or the date he made the statement.
Granted, the Nigerian Army has declared the movement for Biafra (Indigenous People of Biafra) a Terrorist group, however, the part of the post that claims ‘Biafrans’ has a history is false. This is because Biafra is not a country; consequently, there are no citizens of Biafra. It stands to reason that whosoever is being “jailed across the world” is incarcerated as a Nigerian regardless of his/her ethnicity.
Interestingly, the timing of this post is particular. This comes after the release of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) list of 77 Nigerian fraudsters with a majority belonging to the Igbo ethnic group. This being the very same tribe the separatist group Biafra originates from. Subsequently, social media ran wild with the story; different hashtags such as #IgboYahooboys, #YorubaDrugdealers, #Fulaniherdsmen were used to take cheap points at various ethnicities.
SIMILAR OCCURRENCES
This is reminiscent of the fact-check conducted by AFP. In the report, claims that Trump said Biafra is a non-violent organisation in the UN, were disproved.
Similarly, in another fact-check done by Africa Check, claims by pro-Biafra blog Jamyco were disproved. The verdict showed there was insufficient evidence to allege that US and Russia plan to support Biafra in its mandate to form an independent state.
CONCLUSION
There is no official word in the press to corroborate this claim. Moreover, there is no country known as Biafra at the moment, therefore there cannot be a statistic to show Biafrans have been imprisoned all over the world. As such, this post is likely to be false. (DUBAWA)
