CLAIM
A video widely circulated on social media platforms, particularly among WhatsApp groups, alleges that armed northern men were seen publicly beating a young woman with sticks because she chose to leave a coerced marriage to pursue education.
Radio Now undertook a fact-checking mission to verify whether the incident depicted in the video truly took place in Zamfara State and based on the facts we gathered, the claim that the incident happened in Zamfara State is UNSUBSTANTIATED by any known public records and the video did not originate in Nigeria.
OUR FINDINGS
Radio Now dissected the footage into individual frames using an online video-to-image sequence tool and conducted a Reverse Image Search, a verification tool for images, to determine the origin of the picture.
The Zamfara caption is not recent
It Happened In Kenya
In response to a post by Goziem Ekekwe, a Facebook user shared a link containing the report of the assaulted lady, published by Kenyans.co.ke.
Additionally, Kenyan Twitter users suggested that the incident took place in Kuria, Migori County.
According to the report, the lady fled from a forced marriage and returned home to gather her belongings and resume schooling when she was allegedly assaulted by vigilantes who target and assault women wearing short skirts and trousers.
There are also reports that former Governor Nairobi Sonko Mike and Senator Ladama Olekina had posted the video on their verified Twitter and Facebook accounts as reported, Radio Now reviewed their posts from January 2023.
Olekina did not share it, while Mike posted it on both Twitter and Facebook.
VERDICT: Based on the evidence gathered by Radio Now, the assertion that the tortured woman is from the Northern region of Nigeria or that the video was filmed in Zamfara LACKS SUBSTANTIATION from any publicly available records, and the video did not originate within Nigeria. Therefore, Radio Now concludes that the claim is FALSE.
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