Real Image Shared With a Misleading Claim
The Claim
A girl refused to fly the national flag because she lost her 3 brothers to SARS.
News posted on
Emerging story
A picture of a girl crying went viral on social media amid Nigeria protests. Social media users shared the picture claiming that the girl lost three of her brothers. Tweets and posts claimed that the girl refused to raise the Nigerian flag after her brothers were killed by police officers during the protests.
Misbar’s Analysis
Our investigation found the claim misleading. We found the profile of the girl in the claim but we didn't find anything posted on her page related to the circulating news.
The image is real, and she had joined protests in south-eastern Nigeria. But as the image was shared, people started adding misleading information.
Betty Irabor tweeted a screenshot revealing a conversation with the girl circulating in the claim.
Irabor, a mental health advocate confirmed that Ugwu Ugochukwu denied losing her brothers.
Nigerians began demonstrating in early October, calling for the ban of a notorious police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, that has been long accused of violent harassment. The protests erupted after a video showed a SARS officer allegedly shooting a man in Delta state before driving off. Peaceful protests, organized under the hashtag #EndSARS, spread across the country of 206 million people and to Nigerian diaspora communities in the U.S. and Europe in solidarity with a movement that has sought to bridge the country’s traditional sectarian and economic divides.
