Was the story of Nigerian kidnappers smuggling ransom money into Ghana true?                   

A TikTok video, which has been widely circulated on social media, suggests that some Ghanaian police confiscated ransom money being smuggled into the country by Nigerian kidnappers. This is FALSE!

In a close observation of the video, we discovered that there were several crates, containing what looked like bank notes, scattered on a road. A blue van and white fuel tanker were also visible in the video, as well as armed security officials. 

Reading through the comments, it was discovered that there was confusion among social media users. While some believe the video has something to do with Nigeria, some queried the source of the video. 

Facts are:

We conducted a frame-by-frame analysis of the video on the InVid Video verification tool. Results from the analysis show that the earliest version of the video was uploaded on a YouTube channel called Chasm TV on 5th October 2019.

 The earliest version of the video was captioned: “Money scattered after Bank of Ghana bullion van collided with a tanker.” 

Going through the 29-second video, the WABMA Debunker Team observed that the video was identical to the one being circulated to portray the confiscation of ransom money by Nigerian kidnappers.

Keywords like “Ghana bullion van collided with a tanker” took us to a report published by Ghanaian media on the crash. Media organizations, like Joy Online, Pulse Ghana, and Within Nigeria also published the crash. 

Conclusion 

The TikTok video suggesting that some Ghanaian police confiscated ransom money being smuggled into the country by Nigerian kidnappers is misleading. We discovered that the video was taken in 2019 in Ghana during a collision on Techiman-Kumasi road involving a Bank of Ghana bullion van and a fuel tanker. The video has nothing to do with Nigerian kidnappers.