FACT CHECK: Video of arrested thugs shared by Dino Melaye is old

Dino Melaye, the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign council, has shared on Twitter, a video of arrested political thugs.

“Killer squad in APC crested cars arrested today by security agencies in Lagos. O ga ooooo,” reads the caption of the tweet.

The video was posted on Friday, March 17, 2023, a day before the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections in the nation. 

So far, the video tweet has gathered over 386.5k views, 3,017 likes, and 1,385 retweets. 

Killer squad in Apc crested cars arrested today by security agencies in Lagos. O ga ooooo pic.twitter.com/Pce1iRMnTP

— Senator Dino Melaye. (SDM) (@_dinomelaye) March 17, 2023

VERIFICATION

TheCable subjected the video to analysis on InVID, a verification platform, to ascertain the veracity of the video.

Further subjecting the keyframes of the video to Google reverse image search revealed that it has been on YouTube as far back as May 2022.

The video was shared by SharaTV on May 29, 2022, with the caption: “Armed Thugs Arrested In Iseyin While Trying To Disrupt APC Oyo North Senatorial Primaries”.

A keyword search also led to a news report on Oyoaffairs, published on the same day the video was published on YouTube.

According to the news report, operatives of the Oyo state joint security task force, referred to as Operation Burst, apprehended a well-known political thug and his gang in Iseyin, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election for Oyo North Senatorial District held.

VERDICT

The video shared by Dino Melaye is misleading. It has been on the internet for over nine months.