₦airaland Forum

Photographs showing a group of people, who some online reports described as members of the Boko Haram, flooded the Internet on Tuesday.

Four of the photographs, originally published by a popular Nigerian online portal, showed a mixed crowd praying in an open field.

In another photograph, a close-up shot, about four men are busy slaughtering a cow while two others in army camouflage watch.

Those featured in the photographs are mostly young men and a few children whose ages range between three and five years. Only two females, who appear shy, can be seen in the photographs.

Several hundreds of people may have been captured in the photographs, which show them at prayer sessions and taking different positions at different occasions. The open field where the ceremony took place is in the middle of a thick forest.

Not many of them display their guns or other weapons. A supposed leader of one of the prayer sessions kneels down with a rifle lying on the ground beside him. The gun is labelled 723 with a white marker. The butchers also keep rifles close by as they slaughter the cow.

The original report said the photographs were screenshots from a video made by the insurgents while celebrating last week’s Eid-el-Kabir with their families in an undisclosed location.

Online reports are already suggesting that the images could be part of the sect’s efforts to counter assurances by the Nigerian army that they (the insurgents) had suffered severe defeat in recent weeks.

But, unlike the previous videos, audios and images released by the terrorists, the report has set many members of the online community against the online channels that broke the news. According to them, Nigerians have had enough of Boko Haram propaganda, and it is time to play down its antics.

With improvements in digital technology, photographs can now be manipulated to tell a story. There have been instances where fictitious videos or photographs were doctored for the purpose of misleading the public.

For this reason, one Ramatu, who commented via Disqus, an online debate platform, called on Nigerians to be wary of reports that are full of biased conclusions.

She picked holes in the report and photographs, saying it was high time the government began to question bloggers and online media operators over exaggerated reports on sensitive issues.

Ramatu said, “This is rather unprofessional. Where is the ‘open field’ located? Maiduguri, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Lagos, Enugu or Port Harcourt? So they are ‘openly carrying rifles’? What does that tell anybody? What do you expect – that terrorists in their hideout somewhere pretending to be pious and at prayer would not ‘pray’ in an ‘open field’ and ‘carry rifles’?

“I am disappointed at whoever posted this story. What is the story here? Why not say you are the official journal of Boko Haram, helping them to put out their propaganda? Honestly, this is almost criminal and seditious in that they help to spread fear when Nigerian soldiers are paying in blood to maintain peace.”

Ramatu’s sentiment was echoed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms where the photographs of the suspected insurgents were circulated.

But, amid criticism from a section of the Internet community, bloggers, whose primary goal is attracting traffic, have continued to feast on the photographs. As typical of citizen journalists, they also claim that the shots are taken from a new video released by the sect, even as nobody has seen the video.

However, some social media activists said that the videos cast doubt on the soldiers’ claim that they are winning the battle. A tweeter wondered how the insurgents still managed to gather so many members if they were, indeed, being killed.

But the Nigerian Armed Forces as of Tuesday evening had not responded to the reports on “video screenshots”, at least not through its social media platforms.

Communication experts had warned that the military would continue to lose the online propaganda war unless it became more proactive.

tobimillar:
Bloggers again!! They should be jailed...

You want to find boko haram leaders start by asking: Who snapped the pixtures?

menix:
So america will jail a CNN staff for stumbling acrox an isis tape.

Make una dey use una brain oo.

tobimillar:
They stumble into the tape...like the tape fell from their hands and landed on cnn laps abi? the investigation should start from how CNN got the tape in the first place...

menix:
So if u work at d media nd i have ur email, i decide to pass my msg acrox to d media thro ur email.
Pls will u welcom d idea u re to go to jail for being a source of communication.

tobimillar:
They stumble into the tape...like the tape fell from their hands and landed on cnn laps abi? the investigation should start from how CNN got the tape in the first place...

OZAOEKPE:
"dumbest post in the history of nairaland, you need a solid education". Quote me anywhere.

tobimillar:
Menix, if na America trust me they can trace the I.P address...am not so much of a tech geek but I know it's possible

OZAOEKPE:
"dumbest post in the history of nairaland, you need a solid education". Quote me anywhere.

menix:
Sure IP Add can b traced.
But ask ursef these:
The days of Osama, as his videos flood d Net, did they get him thro IP tracking.
ISIS has a functional web page, ow many ve been tracked.


A yahoo boy newbie is aware his 1st move has to b his IP Addy.

madridguy:
video screenshots or not Hausa leaders need to come together and put an end to the insurgency. They need to start preaching peace among their ward, report any criminal activities to the police, cooperate with the army fighting the sect, abolish almajiri slave trade and above all they should stop killing their people for selfish gain.

frankyychiji:
I agree with you that Hausa leaders or elders if you may, hold the key to ending the insurgency. But you didn't say this when the last government held sway. You blamed Jonathan for every thing every time. Look at the the Borno governor, not for once was it demanded of him of him to give account of the security collapse under him. At a point, the northerners said the army was carrying out a genocide against them. They blamed Ihejirika. They dragged him to Icc. They said Southerners were sponsoring the boko haram. They blamed everybody but refused to look inwards. I am glad that today, having won election with lies and propaganda, Apc is not too ashamed to open up on the real cause of boko haram. The people of the north!

madridguy:
You're totally wrong for thinking I will be supporting any party/government for toying with humans life. There is nothing like peace. We are all Nigeria and it is only a kid that will think the killing in the north east did not concern him. For the fact that we answer the same name the international community sees us the way they see Pakistani. I keep saying this and I will continue to say it, Boko Haram is as result of bad leadership in the north couple with their hate preaching among themselves. I blamed Jonathan for not taking the appropriate measures that allowed the group to be escalated.

OZAOEKPE:
"dumbest post in the history of nairaland, you need a solid education". Quote me anywhere.

frankyychiji:
I think what tobimillar is trying to establish is that if a reporter was in possession of a very exclusive and sensitive video, the reporter would have to be investigated on how he got it supposing the reporter does not have official authority to receive such. Such investigations would be a first step to tracing those behind and /or featured in the video. This is not the same as criminalizing the reporter.
Don't quote me though, I might be wrong

frankyychiji:
This government also seems to be towing that path of the last administration not taking appropriate measures that allowed the group and their activities to escalate if I must agree with you.
We were here some time last week or so, when the Army shouted in a very loud voice that it had information showing that some northern elders who were benefiting from the insurgency were recruiting marabouts (for whatever reason), probably to invoke spiritual beings to prevent the insurgency from coming to an end.
And I asked, instead of issuing a warning in the media, why can't they bring to book anyone who had been found or even suspected of any action inimical to the defeat of the insurgency? Are the so called elders "powerful people" that just can't be confronted headlong? Is the Buhari government towing the part of its predecessor who in a bid not to upset the "owners of Nigeria", treated boko haram with kids gloves at its initial stage until it became a hydra-headed monster?
Buhari himself while campaigning told the world that the onslaught against boko haram was a fight against the north!

madridguy:
Let wait and see how the NA tackle those elites in question. To me, I believe PMB will not take it lightly with anyone trying to elongate BH issue. The whole world is watching and I hope BH will be a thing of history soon if Hausa people want it to stop.

madridguy:
Let wait and see how the NA tackle those elites in question. To me, I believe PMB will not take it lightly with anyone trying to elongate BH issue. The whole world is watching and I hope BH will be a thing of history soon if Hausa people want it to stop.

frankyychiji:
Lets wait and see? Time no dey. December deadline remember?