Nigeria: No Evidence Nigerian President Bola Tinubu Is ‘Flooding’ His Country With Chadian Herders to Rig 2027 Elections
IN SHORT: According to some Facebook posts, Nigerian president Bola Tinubu has allowed millions of herders from neighbouring Chad into his country so they could vote for him in the next election, but an Igbo soldier killed 300 of them at the border. There is no evidence for either part of the claim.
A Nigerian soldier has killed 300 of the 4.6 million Chadians who were going to help Nigerian president Bola Tinubu rig the 2027 election. That’s according to a message posted as “breaking news” in a public Facebook group with over 365,400 members.
The message, dated 19 May 2025, reads: “Breaking News: A total of 4.6 million nomads from Chad are reportedly flooding into Nigeria on the orders of Tinubu, allegedly to vote for him. Aware that he is losing support, Tinubu is said to be deliberately flooding the country with Chadian cattle herders to rig the election.”
It also quotes the soldier, who is supposedly of the Igbo ethnic group, as saying: “I managed to kill 300 of them and chased the rest back across the border.”
The same claim appears here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
Tinubu is only halfway through his first four-year term as president, but his supporters have started his re-election campaign.
Nigerian presidents are constitutionally allowed to serve for two four-year terms.
In the build-up to the 2027 general elections, Tinubu is facing opposition in northern Nigeria, with some politicians in the region spearheading a coalition aimed at unseating him.
But has Tinubu invited over 4 million herders from neighbouring Chad to Nigeria to help rig the 2027 presidential election, and were 300 of them killed while crossing the border? We checked.
No evidence to support this
First, the post did not provide any details, such as when and where the Nigerian soldier killed the herders. Such a lack of detail is typical of made-up stories.
Second, if over 4 million Chadian herders had crossed Nigeria’s northeastern border, there would be photos or videos of this. But we couldn’t find any evidence of such an event.
Additionally, we found it suspicious that the media and the Nigerian military have not reported on the mass-immigration or about a Nigerian soldier killing 300 Chadian herders at the border.
A reverse image search reveals that one of the photos circulating with the claim shows Ghanaian soldiers. The photo was taken on 9 June 2023 in Daboya, a town in northern Ghana, during the 2023 edition of the African Lion, an annual training exercise between the United States and participating African nations.
No evidence supports the claim.
By Africa Check
