A post along with a couple of images is being shared on social media claiming that it shows a recent protest by Nigerians at the White House.
The post is shared on Facebook with a caption that reads, “Happening now! At the White House right now in the USA! Biafrans protest in thousands.”
Here’s the link to the above post. Check similar posts here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim and found it to be FALSE.
Starting with our investigation, we searched the web for news reports about any recent protest at the White House but could not find any credible media reports. Protests near the White House are almost each time covered by media outlets.
We looked closely at the comments and found out that some users had commented that these images are related to a protest in Vatican City. Taking a cue from this we did a keyword search and found multiple YouTube videos uploaded in 2019 which had the same scenes as seen in the viral post. The caption of the videos indicated that they were recorded at the Vatican City.
As per the YouTube title, the video shows the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) protesting in the Vatican City. According to BBC News, IPOB is a Nigerian separatist group that wants to break away from Nigeria and establish its own country.
Taking a cue from this, we found out that many IPOB supporters rallied in front of the Vatican in February 2016 where Pope Francis greeted them at St. Peter’s Square.
We also found a video posted on YouTube in February 2016 by NNTV-Africa showing footage of the IPOB supporters at the Vatican. The video shares similarities with the images shared in the viral post.
Further, we also compared images in the Facebook post with that of a Google Maps shot of St. Peter’s Square and found clear similarities.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral images do not show any recent protests at the White House but were taken at the Vatican City.
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