Verdict: Misleading On April 2nd, 2024, An X (formerly Twitter) user with the username EPhilips5 posted a 2:31 minutes video to claim that a local chairman and a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was flogged by the youth in his local government for selling the palliatives meant for them. In the viral video
Verdict: Misleading
On April 2nd, 2024, An X (formerly Twitter) user with the username EPhilips5 posted a 2:31 minutes video to claim that a local chairman and a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was flogged by the youth in his local government for selling the palliatives meant for them.
In the viral video posted on social media, a man was seen tied to a tree by a group of men who were flogging him with canes, and he could be seen crying. Captioning the purported video, the X user wrote on his timeline: “APC local government chairman who sold palliatives meant for his local government was seriously beaten by angry youths in the Northern part, this is a lesson to our leaders that anything can happen 😭😮”
The post has generated different reactions from the readers, who commended the actions of the video while some doubted the originality of the video. For instance, chikaoi responded, “We are getting there, just with time. I do not encourage this, but neither do I condemn it too. It is what it is.”
Another X user, owendino01 also reacted “This is exactly what Nigerian politicians need for them to wake up and start working. They need serious beating and it’s going to happen.”
As of the time of Fact-checking this story, it has attracted 1.3 million views, over 1000 comments, 2, 700 retweets, 7,000 likes, and 1,100 bookmarks
Similarly, on April 5th, 2024, a Facebook user, Dr Patrick Obi Nwafor, posted the same video, with a similar caption and reactions here.
Background
Palliative distributions in Nigeria have always been a controversial phenomenon, in which public office holders have been caught in the web of hoarding the food items meant to provide succour to their constituents, thereby steering hostile reactions and further imposing hardships on members of the public as against its objectives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which forced the country into lockdown, a group of Nigerian businesspeople and corporate organisations known as the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) contributed billions of naira to help the country fight the rampaging coronavirus.
Out of the funds contributed, food items were bought and distributed to different states, but some of the food items were later discovered by a group of ENDSARS protesters in some enclosed warehouses in their respective states, causing public outrage that some of the state governors have hoarded the palliatives for the public
Furthermore, the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu has caused hardship for the people. This led to protests from different parts of the country crying for the reversal of the President’s policy.
To cushion the hardship in the country, the Federal Government announced the distribution of food palliatives to state governors. However, there have been allegations that some political leaders have hoarded the palliatives in certain areas of the country.
Due to the virality of the purported video and the sensitivity of the issues surrounding palliative distribution in Nigeria, NDR subjected the claim that a local government chairman was flogged by irate youth for hoarding palliatives meant for the community to fact check to determine the authenticity of the claim.
Verification
To confirm the claim’s veracity, we divided the video screenshot into several thumbnails and used a Google reverse image search. The search outcome revealed that the video has been posted for different purposes in the past.
The first result of the search done by NDR showed that the video was posted and uploaded on https://www.pulse.com.gh on April 27, 2023, with the headline
“Kaftan-wearing elder orders supervises flogging of crying man tied to a tree (video)”
Further checks also revealed that the video was also posted on www.correctng.com/ on April 26, 2023, with the headline “Woman’s brothers tie her husband to tree, flog him for constantly beating her.”
Beyond the above links, it was also realised that other information garnered from Yandex reverse image search indicated that the video does not have any correlation with palliative distribution, nor does it indicate that the man in the video is a local government chairman in Nigeria
Conclusion
Therefore, the claim that a local chairman who belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was flogged by the youth in his local government members for selling the palliatives meant for them is Misleading.
