Fact-check: Former Niger finance minister caught on video crying after allegedly squandering state funds?

No, the video shows Morou Amadou, the former Justice Minister in Niger, and is unrelated to the coup.  

Writer: Jibi Moses

A video originally posted on Tiktok and making the rounds on WhatsApp claiming that Niger’s former finance minister was crying after being threatened with death by firing squad for stealing from the state coffers is false.  

The video shows a man sobbing and being offered a bottle of water. The WhatsApp message accompanying the video claims that the man, supposedly Niger’s former finance minister, was crying because he was given an ultimatum of 48 hours by the coup plotters to account for all the stolen Nigerien money or else he would be killed by firing squad. The video was shared on July 31, 2023.

The video was also presented with the same headline on different websites, such as here and here.

Investigation:

211Check traced the TikTok video to Djibo Amadou, who shared the video on July 26, 2023. 

A Reverse Image Search, of a screengrab from the video returned many results, some dating back as far as 2021.

Sources that used the video with the same or similar headlines include here, here, and  here, among others. 

However, the results also brought up the video as shared on December 27, 2021, by a Facebook user. The video was shared with an accompanying text in Hausa, identified with the help of Google Translate. The text’s translation identifies the person in the video as ‘Morou Amadou, the former Niger minister of Justice.’

We also discovered that the video had been shared on Twitter on December 20, 2021, with a caption in Arabic. Using Google Translate, we realised the post described the man in the video as the former Minister of Justice, ‘Maro Amdo’, who was a minister in Niger between 2011 and 2021. 

The narrative was that the minister was crying while praising the former presidents of Niger, especially Muhammadu Issoufou, with whom he worked for ten years as Minister of Justice.

Morou Amadou 

A search on Google using the words “Is Morou Amadou the former finance minister of Niger?” returned several results explaining that Amadou was the Former Minister of Justice from April 21, 2011–April 1, 2021.

On the other hand, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, the former Finance Minister of Niger, has been appointed the New Prime Minister by coup leader Abdourahmane Tchiani. 

Niger coup saga

On July 26, 2023, the Presidential Guard in Niger launched a coup and detained President Mohamed Bazoum and his family. Senior officers from various defence and security forces (FDS) branches formed a junta named the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP). They announced the seizure of power In a televised broadcast. The public response varied, with initial demonstrations in support of Bazoum being dispersed by mutinous soldiers and subsequent demonstrations in support of the CNSP. On July 27, the Nigerien Armed Forces joined the CNSP, citing their intent to avoid lethal confrontation and to safeguard the president and his family. (Source🙂

Conclusion

The claim in the video, which has been widely shared, is false and misleading. This video, which is of former Nigerien Minister of Justice Marou Amadou, has been online since December 2021 and is unrelated to the coup.

Similarly, several fact-checking organisations have also debunked the claim, as seen here, here, and here.

This fact check was published by 211 Check with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and the African Fact-Checking Alliance.

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