There is a viral video trending on social media showing the opening of the Idiroko border in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria.
According to the 21-second video, customs officers performed a ceremonial reopening of the Idiroko border amid jubilation.
Many Nigerians sharing the video claimed that the border was reopened after the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But how true is this? BattaFiles finds out.
Ex-president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, ordered closure of Nigeria’s land border with Benin, preventing the import of goods. This was part of an effort to tackle smuggling and associated corruption, but also to spur the domestic agricultural industry.
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With the market for smuggled food now restricted, domestic food prices—already high— went up and the economy of neighboring Benin—a staging area for smuggling into Nigeria—was devastated.
Imports into Nigeria are to come through sea ports, where customs duties can be imposed more easily than at land borders.
But recently, a social media user posted a video on Twitter with the caption: “Idiroko border now opened by @officialABAT government. What was the reason for closure? Buhari was president. What is the reason for reopening? Tinubu is president! @PeterObi will bring clarity and needed change in direction.”
The video was also shared in multiple WhatsApp groups.
In a bid to verify the claim and understand the genesis of the video, BattaFiles subjected multiple screenshots of the video to Google reverse image search, a digital tool used to discover the source of a picture and visually similar images from the internet.
We find out that video has been on YouTube as far back as April 2022. So the claim that the Idiroko border was recently reopened is FALSE!
