Claim: A video circulating online shows terrorists threatening to marry abducted girls or force them to become a terrorist.
Verdict: Old and Misleading
A video shows a gang of terrorists, locally known as bandits, threatening to marry some abducted girls who are presently in their custody over a delay in payment of demanded ransoms to secure the freedom of the abductees.
The video started trending on X a few days after terrorists kidnapped 287 students in Kuriga, a town in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
About 300 students of LEA Primary School, Kuriga 1, were abducted by the terrorists and led into the bush. While some of them were lucky to escape, 287 students were taken away by the terrorists.
A journalist based in Northern Nigeria, Ladan Salihu, shared the video on his X page with the caption, “This is happening within a sovereign territory called Nigeria. Bandits have threatened to share these captured girls as ‘wives’ among themselves if their families refuse to pay ransom. Government is incapable. Our soldiers are unwilling to confront this menace.”
As of this time of writing, the video has been viewed by 89,600 persons with 306 reposts.
Verification
A keyframe analysis of the video using Microsoft Bing shows that the video has been online for about two years. Further search on the Google search engine revealed that the video was first released online on Monday, October 10, 2022.
In the video were two daughters and one domestic staff of the immediate former Accountant General of Zamfara State, Abubakar Bala–Furfuri. In the video, the terrorists threatened to marry them or force them to become terrorists who will be used to attract other targets of their criminal activities if their parent fails to pay the ransom they demanded. There was also media reports of the incident as seen on Premium Times, Daily Post and Legit.ng.
Further search shows that the children were eventually released on November 7, 2022 as reported by Daily Post, The Cable and Daily Trust.
Conclusion
The video shared about terrorists marrying abducted children or turning them into terrorists is old and misleading.