Photoshopped Picture Used to Depict Foreign Support for Pro-Biafra Agitation

Claim

A Twitter user with the name Mosco White (@white_mosco) has uploaded a picture to suggest that foreign nationals have joined the Biafran struggle for secession.

An online verification has revealed that the picture was downloaded from a different source, photoshopped and uploaded to social media to show foreign support to Biafra agitation. 

Full Text

“Biafra is here no need for one Nigeria slogan anymore…,” Mosco White, a pro-Biafra Twitter account, tweeted as a caption after he uploaded the picture on Twitter. 

The picture shows two foreign military police officers holding a pro-Biafra placard that states, “Nigeria will soon break up Biafra is coming”. 

The tweet generated about 1,000 reactions in 24 hours, with many throwing their weight behind the tweet. One of them, Chinelo Ogamanya, with the handle @Cogamanya replying in support

“Sure… we’re heading home already….all thanks to almighty God in heaven..

All thanks to his humble servant our supreme leader MNK who has been at the forefront of this struggle,” she wrote. 

 Verification: 

Old Picture, Different Claim 

Using reverse image search tools (Google, Yandex, Bing, and TinEye), we identified the two officers as foreign military police, but couldn’t find the root source of the original picture, hence, their nationality could not be ascertained.

However, we were able to trace the oldest photoshopped image with different claims and uploaded to different platforms before it found its way to Igbere Television, an online platform, that uploaded it with the claim “Nigeria Will Soon Break Up Biafra is Coming”, three years ago. 

The oldest source of the picture with a different claim was traced to a Facebook page with the name  Jesus the King of kings is Coming Soon Repent about four years ago, in 2016. 

The page had posted the picture several times and also as a profile picture with “Jesus is coming back” on the photoshopped placard.

The same picture was also uploaded to Nairaland, a Nigerian online forum, but with yet  another caption on the placard. 

A user, emmabest2000, uploaded the same picture in 2019 with a statement claiming,”fame is temporary, Money is temporary, Life is temporary, but Jesus… He is eternal”. 

The picture was used with different captions in other languages and uploaded to different social media platforms. 

It was also uploaded to Instagram with a Portugues caption. 

Conclusion: 

The picture uploaded by the Mosco White to depict a foreign support to Biafra agitation is false and misleading. The picture has been photoshopped and uploaded several times on different platforms with different messages. 

This fact-check is produced per HumAngle partnership with the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in Nigeria