FACT CHECK: Video showing army, Amotekun operatives ‘r£scuing k!dnapped Oyo school children’ is false
FACT CHECK: Video showing army, Amotekun operatives ‘rescuing kidnapped Oyo school children’ is false
An X user has posted a video allegedly showing the Oyo Amotekun operatives and the Nigerian army leading a joint operation to rescue the kidnapped school children and teachers in the state.
“Oyo state Amotekun and Nigerian Military spotted in the forest working hard to bring back the abducted children and teachers,” the social media user said in the post shared on June 7.
In the nearly two-minute video, soldiers and members of the Amotekun are seen combing a cocoa farm, searching abandoned huts that give the illusion of hideouts.
Amotekun is a Western Nigeria security network set up to curb insecurity in the south-west.
In the footage, a man is heard asking in Yoruba: “Is it our people who were living here before or Fulanis?”
Another replied: “Our people who are farmers.”
The video has since gathered 39k views, 147 likes, and has been reposted 49 times.
The post comes weeks after suspected bandits attacked three schools in the Oriire LGA in Oyo, abducting about 39 students and seven teachers on May 15.
Days after the abduction, the Oyo state Amotekun launched an “intensive forest” operation as part of rescue efforts.
Though the schoolchildren and teachers have yet to be found or released, is the X video accurately attributed to the Oyo Amotekun?
VERIFICATION
CableCheck conducted a reverse image search of the footage and found that it has been on the internet since November 2025.
The original video, a much clearer version, was uploaded by Ekujumi Julius, a member of the Ondo Amotekun.
“The efforts of Ondo Amotekun are notable, similar to Jesus’ words to his people: I have made the ultimate sacrifice for you, what have you done for me?” Julius captioned the video posted November 21, 2025.
A scan through Julius’ page showed that he routinely posts operational exercises by the Ondo Amotekun corps.
CableCheck also observed that a ‘Tecno Pop 9′ watermark found on the X user’s post was also on Julius’ video. The watermark was a common feature among most of the Amotekun corp member’s videos.
VERDICT
The clip attributing a search operation to the Oyo Amotekun is misleading and an old video from 2025.
