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Introduction
From court judgments to the high-intensity fights by the military — the war against insurgency and banditry in Nigeria’s northern region scaled up in the last few months.
This is as foreign powers, especially the United States, continue to collaborate with Nigeria to get rid of the terrorists.
Aside from the military offensive and court judgments condemning these terrorists to death or life imprisonment, the Nigerian government, in partnership with the US, has been able to name and take appropriate actions against terrorist financiers in Nigeria.
However, despite the increased military action, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for the bandits still in place, attacks by these terrorists, especially in the north, have been ceaseless.
Claim
Solomon Dalung, a lawyer and former minister of sports under the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari, while hailing the recent military breakthrough in the north, shared images of slain terrorists.
In a post on his Facebook page on Friday, he wrote, ” In the early hours of today, Friday, June 26, 2026, security operatives successfully neutralised a large number of armed bandits during an operation in Kangiwa village, Kebbi State.
“May God continue to grant our security personnel victory and protect them as they work to restore peace and security. Amen.”
The post, which has since generated thousands of reactions and comments, has spread across Facebook.
A columnist, Ugo Egujuo, also shared the same images on Friday with a caption that reads, “Good news, sleep well, beautiful sleep.
Verification
However, a Google Image Reverse Search was conducted on the three images posted by the former minister, which indicated that they first appeared online on 23 June 2025 and are not recent.
A group member of the Northeast Star Magazine online community, Abubakar Mohammed, was the first person to share the photos last year.
He captioned it, “BREAKING NEWS:
A huge blow for JNIM terrorists in Burkina Faso: the JNIM leader in Diapaga was eliminated by Burkina Faso Special Forces.
Checking further, FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that many Facebook pages in Burkina Faso also circulated the images during that time.
See some of the pages here, here and here.
For instance, Bayiri Info, a Facebook page which claimed to come from the Sahel nation, made a similar post, sharing the same images.
This fact checker came across an image website from Burkina Faso that also published the images.
However, during that time, many Facebook pages in Nigeria also claimed that the photos were from a military operation in Zamfara, northwestern Nigeria.
However, FACTWATCH Nigeria was unable to establish where the images came from, as there were no credible reports from either Burkina Faso or Nigerian media organisations that corroborated what the Facebook pages claimed.
On the former minister’s claim that the pictures were from the recent military actions in Kebbi State, no news report from a reputable Nigerian organisation could match the claim.
Also, as of Saturday 27 June, there has been no official statement by Nigerian Army authorities corroborating the claim.
Verdict
The claim by the former minister, Dalung, linking the images to a recent military operation in Kebbi State is MISLEADING.
Although FACTWATCH Nigeria was not able to authoritatively confirm where the photo came from, either in Burkina Faso or Nigeria, but we are still able to discover that the images first appeared online in June last year and are not recent.
Credit: FACTWATCH Nigeria
