Several blogs, and social media pages, handles and profiles have published a story claiming that the renowned cleric, Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Mahmoud Gumi has been arrested by the U.S army while attempting to flee to Turkey. Pictures of Dr. Gumi being led by two-armed soldiers were shared on Facebook, X and WhatsApp with a caption ‘Sheikh Gumi arrested by U.S army in Abuja fleeing to Turkey’.
Other social media posts went far by making quotes in the story, one of such quotes reads: ‘JUST IN: Information reaching us has it that the Islamic Cleric Gumi Abubakar Sheikh allegedly has been arrested by US, ICC through the petition made against him by concern Nigerians over his speeches for Nigeria Government to Negotiate with bandits and put them in budget.’
Many handle, profiles and pages have published the posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook attracting thousands of likes, comments and shares. Some of the publishers on the two platforms include @HapostleTim, @I_amchukaaa, @Ejikeofoegbu1, Critics News, Love Haruna, Oyawah TV, and Mr code comedies.
Facts:
Investigation conducted by Tantancewa fact-checkers found that the widely published post claiming Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Mahmoud Gumi was arrested by U.S. soldiers at Abuja airport as he attempts to flee to Turkey is false. It has been observed that, while telling the story, all the platforms and outlets that published post used the same picture and the picture is AI generated.
While the post suggests that Dr. Gumi was arrested on his way to Turkey in his attempt to flee from Nigeria in first week of February, it was discovered Gumi did travel to Abuja, rather he was in Kaduna at the time the post went viral.
Tantancewa reached out to Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Mahmoud Gumi on the story of his arrest and he confirmed it is false and that the picture used in the story is AI generated.
Confirming the falsity of the story, Dr. Gumi said, ‘Soldiers get themselves into civil cases, they make arrest only at battle ground and even at that they hand over the suspect to the police, but they don’t just make arrest’
It could be recalled that U.S. troops have in Nigeria as reported by Premium Times.