FACT CHECK: Did customs recruit repentant Boko Haram member as officer?



Ayodele Oluwafemi
OCTOBER 20, 2021 8:00 PM

You must have seen a viral video where an officer of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was struggling to salute his superiors appropriately.


A viral post making the rounds on social media has claimed that the customs officer in the viral video is a “repentant Boko Haram member” who posed in a picture with Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina.

The post further claimed that the “repentant Boko Haram member” has been enlisted in the customs.

The post attempted to draw semblance between the customs officer in the viral video and “the bandit” who clutched an Ak-47 rifle beside Masari.

The post has been repeatedly shared on several Facebook groups and on WhatsApp. Versions of the post can be seen here, here and here.



Also, a Twitter account with the name Simon Ekpa published the post on his Twitter handle which has over 40,000 followers. The post has garnered over 36 comments, 616 retweets and 447 likes.


VERIFICATION

To verify the claim, TheCable carried out a reverse image search of the original picture.


Buharin Daji with an AK-47 rifle

The earliest version of the “bandit” picture seen by TheCable was posted on January 21, 2017 on a Facebook page. The caption of the picture(s) was written in Hausa language. The translation of the post stated that Masari was receiving a leader of bandits identified as Buharin Daji, called “Buhari of the forest”. Different media reports confirmed the name of the AK-47-bearing bandit as Baharin Daji.

An online search to find out more details about Buharin Daji shows news items from credible media platforms saying he was killed in March 2018. News of the death was reported [url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nwest/261302-notorious-bandit-buharin-daji-terrorising-zamfara-killed%E2%80%8E-officials.html]here[/url], here and here.

According to the customs service, the officer in the viral video is a newly promoted deputy superintendent of customs who has been in the service of the agency since 2011.

In a statement, Joseph Attah, customs spokesperson, described the claim as a ridiculous comparison.

“It is therefore very unfortunate that those who are bent on presenting the country in a bad light could take a simple human error during decoration to ridicule his person and attempting to extend the same to the Service and the nation. This is obviously the handwork of unpatriotic elements that should be ignored,” Attah said.

“A good look at the pictures will clearly show that the Customs Officer is NOT the pictured bandit. NCS, therefore, urges all well-meaning Nigerians to ignore the ridiculous comparison and treat it as the work of those who do not wish the nation well.”

VERDICT

There is no sufficient evidence to back up the claim that customs recruited “a repentant Boko Haram member” as an officer. The claim that the bandit posing with Masari in a picture is the same person as the customs officer in a viral video is false.

This story is published in partnership with Report for the World, a global service program that supports local public interest journalism.

VERDICT

There is no sufficient evidence to back up the claim that customs recruited “a repentant Boko Haram member” as an officer. The claim that the bandit posing with Masari in a picture is the same person as the customs officer in a viral video is false.

This story is published in partnership with Report for the World, a global service program that supports local public interest journalism

Officer in Viral Promotion Video Not Bandit – Customs PRO

Published 5 days ago on October 16, 2021
By Hassanah Ahmed

National Public Relations Officer of Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Joseph Attah has described a piece of news going around that a recently promoted Deputy Superintendent of Customs (DSC) in a viral rank decoration video was a bandit as untrue.

The National PRO who responded to misleading insinuations about the officer who was being decorated with his new rank and out of excitement lost coordination, due to what he called nervous excitement, disclosed that the officer was recruited in 2011.

He added that another picture of a suspected bandit being referred to as the same customs officer was the handiwork of mischief makers who never meant well for Nigeria while urging the public to ignore the wrong juxtaposition.

He said, “The attention of the Nigeria Customs Service has been drawn to a ridiculous video making rounds on social media platforms, comparing a newly promoted Deputy Superintendent of Customs and a bandit with an insinuation that the Customs Officer is the bandit that was recruited into the Service”.

“When this Officer in a nervous excitement could not get his acts together during decoration, resulting in various public commentaries, little did we imagine that mischief-makers would descend so low as to fabricate this evil”. He added.

He further said that “For the avoidance of doubt, the Officer in question was recruited through a rigorous process and trained in 2011 and has just grown to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Customs, ( 3 stars )”.

“It is therefore very unfortunate that those who are bent on presenting the Country in a bad light could take a simple human error during decoration to ridicule his person and attempting to extend same to the Service and the nation. This is the handwork of unpatriotic elements that should be ignored.
A good look at the pictures will clearly show that the Customs Officer is NOT the pictured bandit.

“NCS, therefore, urges all well-meaning Nigerians to ignore the ridiculous comparison and treat it as the work of those who do not wish the nation well” he added.

HisSexcellency:

I was expecting a very detailed investigative piece.

fourboys:
OMG I can't believe what I just read, u Nigerian government dey employ bandits steady and educated youths from the south are wasting away??

HisSexcellency:

I was expecting a very detailed investigative piece.
Investigative journalism has gone to the dogs in this country.
So, does it mean that they are unable to get the true information about the custom officer in the said video
They couldn't even get his real name, rank, and what event and date that video in circulation was made