A video showing food trucks passing through Kara in Niger State being stopped from entering Kwara State has been circulating on X (formerly Twitter). On February 17, some X accounts shared this video and captioned it with incendiary calls for retaliation from the south.
An X user captioned the video: “Trucks carrying foodstuff from the North to the South are allegedly stopped and asked to reverse. Very soon we’ll soon see pipelines going up in flames and Petrol tankers stopped from going up north. Interesting times ahead!”
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X users like @aai_austin, @IamthatNaijaguy and @spoiltkid have recirculated the video as of the time of this report. According to X’s metrics, more than 140,000 other users have viewed these posts.
CLAIM: Trucks carrying food from northern Nigeria to the south are being sent back.
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VERIFICATION: FIJ traced the full video back to an incident in 2021, where young people stationed at Kara in Niger State blocked truckloads of food from entering Jebba in Kwara State. FIJ also found media reports here and here describing the cause of the blockage.
The reports suggested that the blockage was linked to the ultimatum issued by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association to the Federal Government demanding compensation for losses suffered by northern traders in Oyo State at the time.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Bago, the Niger State governor, announced on February 5 that his administration had stopped trucks from making mass food purchases. Bago made this statement in reaction to the protests that have erupted across Niger State over food inflation. However, none of these incidents are connected to the video in circulation
CONCLUSION: Claims that Niger State is currently stopping trucks from transporting food to the south are misleading. The video being circulated alongside this claim is from 2021.
