By Shereefdeen Ahmad
On December 19th, 2023, Nigeria’s police public relations officer in Abuja, Prince Olumuyiwa Adejobi shared images of firearms on X, with the claim that they were recovered in Anambra State last week from a gun runner.
The first image contains over 20 Automatic Pump Action Guns, while the second one shows live cartridges.
“These were recovered in Anambra last week from a gun runner. The suspect is in our custody and is helping the police in their investigation,” the caption reads.
As of December 22nd, the post has gathered 1.1 million views, 628 reposts, 1,993 likes and 534 quotes.
CLAIM
Images show recovered firearms in Anambra ‘last week’
THE FINDINGS
Checks show that the claim is MISLEADING
To verify the source of the images, this journalist subjected the images to Reverse Image Search on Yandex, Google Lens and TinEye.
The results showed that the images first appeared on the internet on November 18th, 2023.
The images were used to report a news story about the Police in Anambra State who arrested a major arms dealer dealing illegally in prohibited firearms in the state, as seen here, here, here and here.
According to the Command’s spokesman, Tochukwu Ikenga, the breakthrough followed weeks of intensive surveillance by operatives of the Command.
A total of 23 Automatic Pump Action Guns and 625 live cartridges were recovered.
“So far, three suspects have been arrested in Onitsha while the investigation is being expanded,” he added.
The Anambra State Police Command also made it known through their Facebook handle on November 18th, 2023.
Though it’s not clear whether or not the public relations officer, Prince Olumuyiwa Adejobi was referring to the November 18th incident, it shows that the time frame between the incident and the date Mr. Adejobi made the claim—December 19th —cannot be regarded as last week. It’s a month old.
Meanwhile, this journalist also reached out to the Anambra state police command through a WhatsApp contact obtained from the Command’s Facebook handle, and they only confirmed the November 18th incident, by sending the press statement released by the public relations officer, Tochukwu Ikenga.
When asked whether there was any incident of similar arrest on the 19th of December, the response was ‘no.’
THE VERDICT
The claim that the images show recovered firearms in Anambra last week is MISLEADING, findings revealed that they have been linked to the November 18th incident after the police command arrested a major arms dealer dealing illegally in prohibited firearms.