Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
On Friday, May 22, 2026, precisely a week after armed bandits had attacked three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, a chaotic video began circulating across X and Facebook. In the footage, men and women were seen sprinting frantically along a dusty roadside, their faces frozen in fear. In the background, a male voice shouted in Hausa: “They have entered our community!”.
Within hours, the clip had been viewed more than 600,000 times on X and shared thousands of times on Facebook. The captions were unambiguous: “Just in: Fulanis terrorist just stumbled another community in Ibadan,” wrote an X user with over 12,000 followers, @Somtolism7, alongside the video. A Facebook influencer with 554,000 followers, identified as “Joining,” posted the same footage with the caption: “HAPPENING: There’s an invasion by Fulani Terror!sts into a community in Ibadan Oyo State, and people are running for their lives.”
For many Nigerians already jittery after the abduction of 46 pupils and teachers from three schools in Ogbomoso, the video felt terrifyingly plausible. But the claim was completely false. A thorough investigation by Stone Reporter's fact-checking Committee, and independent verification by Dubawa have traced the footage to a completely different country and a different date: the viral clip shows residents fleeing from an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Biakato, a town in the Mambasa territory of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
Another platform, CableCheck subjected the video to a key‑frame analysis using Google Lens. The search results revealed that the clip had already been on the internet since at least May 8. On that day, a Congolese blogger, congoyetu_, posted the same video on Instagram with a French caption explaining that panic had erupted in Biakato following rumours that ADF rebels had entered the city. “Panic in Byakato, in the territory of Mambasa, after rumors indicating the presence of the ADF in the city,” the caption read. A Congolese media platform, Congo DRC News, also shared the footage on the same day, stating that residents were fleeing Biakato after reports of the presence of ADF elements. Multiple international news outlets confirmed that ADF fighters had indeed attacked the town on May 7, killing at least 12 people and forcing hundreds of civilians to abandon their homes.
The use of a DRC war video to manufacture a terror scare in Ibadan is not an isolated incident. Throughout April and May 2026, as the country became increasingly gripped by a kidnapping and banditry crisis, similar fabricated videos have surfaced. On April 9, 2026, the police debunked a video that claimed “Fulani Islamic terrorists” were firing heavy gunshots and trying to take over Abuja. That clip, which also showed panic‑stricken civilians, was later traced to the South‑West region of Cameroon. In April 2026, a different video that purported to show Nigerians attacking South Africans was also found to be from the DRC, showing the aftermath of an ADF incursion in Byakato.
The persistence of such disinformation campaigns is particularly dangerous in a country where security agencies often rely on public cooperation. False alarms drain police resources, divert attention from genuine threats and can trigger mob violence against innocent communities. The panic generated by the fake Ibadan invasion video led to widespread anxiety across the city, with some residents reportedly arming themselves and others refusing to send their children to school. The spread of the clip coincided with an already tense security situation: the Oyo State Police Command was still battling to rescue the 46 abducted schoolchildren, and news of a fresh “Fulani invasion” risked overwhelming the security apparatus.
The fact‑checking organisations have now issued a clear verdict: the video used to suggest that terrorists invaded Ibadan is from the DRC and has no connection to Nigeria whatsoever. Social media platforms, including X and Facebook, have not yet removed the posts, but the archived links are now available for further scrutiny. The Oyo State Police Command, which has previously warned against the spread of false security information, has not issued an immediate statement on the latest fake video. Nonetheless, the evidence is clear: a clip showing civilians fleeing an ADF attack in eastern Congo was hijacked, captioned in Hausa and weaponised to stoke ethnic and religious tensions in the South‑West. The background voice shouting “They have entered our community” was likely added to localise the video, making it harder for the average Nigerian to recognise its foreign origin.
The disinformation episode serves as a stark warning. In a country where mistrust between communities is already dangerously high, a 40‑second clip — recorded thousands of kilometres away — can be doctored, shared and believed within minutes. The next time such a video appears, the damage may not be limited to social media panic; it could cost real lives.
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