No, Nigerian army did not 'recently' arrest 488 Boko Haram members in Abia state
IN SHORT: Several Facebook posts from April 2026 claim that the Nigerian army "recently" arrested nearly 500 Boko Haram members in Abia state. But the video is old and unrelated to insecurity in 2026.
Several Facebook posts in April 2026 claim that the Nigerian army has arrested nearly 500 Boko Haram members in the southeastern state of Abia.
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Boko Haram is a militant Islamist terrorist group that has carried out violence mainly in northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim.
The Nigerian government is under intense pressure to curb rising insecurity.
Abia, in southeastern Nigeria, is largely Christian and far from the militant group's usual area of operations, making the claim alarming.
One version of the claim reads: "488 Bokoharam members arrested in Abia State by the Nigerian Army in 35 buses."
As evidence, the post includes a Channels TV news report video with supposed details of the arrest. The same claim has appeared here and here. (Note: See other instances of the claim at the end of this report.)
But did these arrests happen and when? We checked.
Old footage recirculated as new
Abia police spokesperson Maureen Chinaka dismissed the claim in a statement as "false, misleading and intended to incite fear and unrest".
She said that the video being circulated was more than 11 years old and not related to any recent events.
In fact, Africa Check debunked the same claim when it circulated in February 2020, tracing it to a June 2014 incident.
Then, as now, we found a clearer version of the video on Channels TV's YouTube page, showing the footage related to an incident that occurred on 15 June 2014. Nigerian troops intercepted buses carrying hundreds of young people along the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway.
The suspects, mostly young people between 16 and 24 years old, said that they had travelled from northern Nigeria in search of work. The incident was widely reported by local media at the time. However, no conclusive evidence was found linking the youth to Boko Haram.
The current claim presents a 2014 incident as recent. Presenting a decade-old incident as recent could cause public alarm.
The claim is false. It also appeared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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