Video shows police station set on fire in central Nigeria, not the country’s capital

The video, which was posted here on Facebook on May 24, 2021, has been shared more than 1,500 times and viewed nearly 70,000 times. According to the post, “unknown Bomb men entered Abuja, test ground with strike of police station (sic)”.

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Screenshot taken on May 25, 2021, showing the false post

The rest of the post accuses the federal government of blaming the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for its national security woes when “Nigeria is at war with itself”.

In December 2020, IPOB set up its own militia known as Eastern Security Network. Since then, there have been multiple attacks on police stations in southern Nigeria. As AFP reported here, the government has blamed the attacks on IPOB and its militia.

The claim, however, is false; the police station in the video was neither bombed nor is it in Abuja.

Video from Niger state

In the video’s audio, people can be heard commenting on the scene in pidgin English. One of them says “na Gauraka police station be this,” (“this is Gauraka police station”), then “we dey Gauraka” (“we are in Gauraka”). Another person asks “how many views una don get?” (“how many views have you gotten?”). The first person responds: “Six views”. 

AFP Fact Check looked up Gauraka police station and found reports in the local media here and here confirming that the police station was set ablaze on May 24, 2021.

According to the reports, this was the work of angry youths, who were protesting the police’s inability to secure the community and keep it safe from bandits. 

We also found a video from local media showing the Gauraka police station just before, and after, it was set on fire.

Police spokesperson for Niger state Wasiu Abiodun confirmed the attack in a statement to media, explaining that “some miscreants blocked both sides of Abuja-Kaduna expressway, protesting the recent cases of kidnapping in the community. The miscreants later extended the protest to Gauraka police outpost, vandalised and set it ablaze”.