March 31, 2025
A viral image circulating on social media, purportedly showing one of the Hausa hunters killed in a recent mob attack in Edo State, has been debunked as false. The photo, shared by X user @CollinsZagaa and Facebook personality Kemi Olunloyo, depicts an armed man standing on a prayer mat in a forest, falsely captioned as a "Fulani hunter going to Kano" who was later lynched in Edo. Investigations by The Guardian reveal the image actually shows Boderi Ishaku, a notorious bandit killed by security forces in 2024, and has no connection to the March 28 incident in Uromi .
The misinformation emerged amid outrage over the mob killing of 16 northern travelers mostly Hausa hunters in Edo State. The victims were en route from Port Harcourt to Kano for Eid al-Fitr celebrations when vigilantes intercepted their truck, discovered locally made Dane guns, and accused them of being kidnappers. A mob subsequently lynched and burned them alive, sparking national condemnation . The false image, which garnered over a million views on X and thousands of reactions on Facebook, was used to justify the attack by portraying the hunters as armed threats.
Reverse image searches confirmed the photo first appeared online in February 2024, identifying the man as Ishaku, a bandit leader neutralized in a military operation .
The Edo State government and federal authorities have condemned both the mob violence and the disinformation fueling tensions. Governor Monday Okpebholo labeled the killings "barbaric," while President Bola Tinubu emphasized that "jungle justice has no place in Nigeria".
Amnesty International warned that unchecked mob violence and misinformation are exacerbating ethnic profiling, citing at least 555 similar cases since 2012 . Police have arrested 14 suspects linked to the attack and rescued 10 survivors, two of whom are hospitalized.
The incident underscores Nigeria's twin crises of vigilante brutality and viral misinformation, with experts urging stricter regulation of vigilante groups and social media accountability to prevent further bloodshed.
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Sources: The Guardian, Reuters,