By Reuters Fact Check
A video of a large crowd outside the federal parliament building in Nepal has been miscaptioned online as showing protests in Nigeria against the detention of a separatist leader who is on trial in Abuja on terrorism charges.
Facebook posts, opens new tab captioned the video, which shows a crossroads packed with people, as “happening live in Abuja” on October 20.
Kanu, a British citizen, is on trial in Abuja on terrorism-related charges stemming from his campaign for the secession of southeastern Nigeria. He denies wrongdoing.
Reuters also published pictures of the October 20 protests in Nigeria.
However, the video shared by some social media posts of people gathered at a crossroads is unrelated to Abuja, as it was captured more than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) away, opens new tab in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The Nepalese federal parliament complex features, opens new tab in the video. Smaller visual features, opens new tab can also be matched to Google Street View imagery to confirm the exact location on Madan Bhandari Road., opens
A higher resolution version of the same video was posted to TikTok, opens new tab on September 8, more than a month before the Abuja protest, by an account that also uploaded two other videos, opens new tab of the same crowd, opens new tab, from the same vantage point.
The TikTok user, mahesh.hardford,, opens new tab is the founder of Hardford Education, according to online records, opens new tab and the company’s website, opens new tab, which lists its office address as the same spot on Madan Bhandari Road, opens new tab where the video was filmed.
Hardford did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters, though in a reply to a comment on one of his TikTok videos he said, opens new tab the clips showed an anti-corruption protest “by youth” in September.
On September 8, the same day the videos were posted to TikTok, thousands of Nepali people, many in their 20s or younger, protested over a recent social media shutdown and corruption.
The police's reaction depends on the criminal's actions.
Some of the protesters forced their way into the federal parliament complex in Kathmandu in what was the Himalayan country’s worst unrest in decades.
Miscaptioned. The video shows people protesting at corruption in Nepal, not pro-Kanu demonstrations in Abuja, Nigeria.
