A Image from Police Vs Shia Protests In Abuja shared with a False Claim

Misbar’s analysis of the social media posts' claims shows that it is fake as the photo was not taken in Imo state as widely circulated.

Search results reveal that the photo has been cropped and taken out of context as the original photo, taken during Police and Shiites clash in Abuja on 21st January 2020, shows the two policemen and another reflective jacket restraining two Shiite members.

This incident took place in a protest demanding the release of their leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky. They attempted to march from the National Human Rights Commission in the Maitama area of the federal capital territory, Abuja. They but met with combined police and civil defense officers who allegedly attacked them.

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, popularly referred to as the Shiites group, is an Islamic pro-Iranian Shia group founded by El-Zakzaky during his academic days and inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution 1970s with the sole objective to spear-head an Islamic revolution in Nigeria.

Nigeria is a well-known secular state with about three dominant religious groups, and thus its pro-Islamic drive has consistently seen it clashing with Nigerian law-enforcement agencies.

The group banned since 2019 following what the government described as its terrorist tendencies, which included attacking soldiers, killing police officers, wanton destruction of public properties, and consistently defying state authority.