FACT-CHECK: Old Indian Video Recycled, Used to Depict Destruction of Solar Panels in Sokoto, Nigeria

BY: Eniola Amadu

Claim: 

Village residents in Sokoto state, Nigeria, destroy solar panels believed to have “blocked the rain from falling”.

Verdict:

The claim that village residents in Sokoto destroy solar panels for blocking rainfall and as a lack of illiteracy is False. The video was recycled to depict a reality in Sokoto, Nigeria.

Full Text:

An old video, posted by a user on X @_Mr_Richard, alleges and shows village residents in Sokoto  destroying solar panels believed to have “blocked the rain from falling”.

The user further claimed that such action was as a result of lack of educational literacy.

Also, a similar post was also found on Facebook, with the same caption but with a different location – Niger Republic.  It also appeared here, here, and here.

The contrasting reports thus raises skepticism on the authenticity of the claim.

Verification:

FactCheckAfrica conducted a Google reverse image search on selected frames from the video used, and discovered that the video had earlier been in circulation in the year 2018 and originated from Chalisgaon, Maharashtra, India. 

The footage originally dates back to February 2018, showing contract laborers vandalizing a 100-megawatt solar power plant because of a labor dispute involving the non-payment of their wages.

The false claim had earlier been in circulation in 2023 with the AFP media debunking it.

Further checks also revealed that the action portrayed in the video was as a result of unpaid wages of the workers who had worked to build the power plant as reported by The Observers in 2018.  Also confirming this was the report published by Climate Samurai. 

Conclusion:

The claim that village residents in Sokoto state, Nigeria, destroy solar panels believed to have “blocked the rain from falling” is false. The video is an old recycled Indian video used to depict a false reality in Nigeria.