Fact-check: Did Sokoto Residents Destroy Solar Panels Believing They Prevent Rainfall?
Fact-check: Did Sokoto Residents Destroy Solar Panels Believing They Prevent Rainfall?
Claim: A viral video circulating on social media allegedly shows residents of Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria, destroying solar panels because they believe the installations prevent rainfall and cause drought.
One of the captions accompanying the video reads:
“If you think education is expensive then see what ignorance can do. This is happening somewhere in Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria. Here they believe the solar panels are responsible for stopping the rains from falling.”
The claim has been equally shared on X (formerly Twitter), with the handle Olaudah Equiano as many users condemned the alleged incident.
Verification: To investigate the veracity of the claim, TimesNG subjected it to verification using digital forensic techniques, including keyword searches and reverse tracing of the video.
The investigation revealed that the footage is not from Nigeria.
A keyword search led to the earliest known version of the video uploaded to YouTube in February 2018 by a channel identified as Climate Samurai. The video is titled: “Solar modules at 100 MW solar plant in Maharashtra destroyed due to non-payment of wages.”
The original footage identifies the location as Chalisgaon, Maharashtra State, India, and explains that workers vandalised more than 100 solar modules after their employer allegedly failed to pay their wages.
Further checks found reports published by Indian media, known as GoNewsIndia in February 2018 confirming that employees at the solar power project damaged the facility during a protest over unpaid salaries and poor working conditions.
There is no evidence in the original video or the contemporaneous news reports suggesting that the residents of Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria, were destroying solar panels because they believe the installations prevent rainfall and cause drought.
Additional and deeper verification by TimesNG using translation techniques also showed that the people heard speaking in the footage use the Ahirani dialect, a language predominantly spoken in Maharashtra, India, further confirming that the incident occurred in India.
TimesNG also found that the same video has been recycled several times, for instance here.
Conclusion: Findings show that the viral video was neither recorded in Sokoto State nor anywhere in Nigeria. It documents an incident that occurred in Chalisgaon, Maharashtra, India, in 2018, where workers vandalised solar panels to protest unpaid wages.
There is no evidence that the destruction was linked to beliefs about rainfall, drought or superstition.
Verdict: False and misleading.
By TimesNG