A video showing the living skeletal structure of a strange creature has caused apprehension among residents of Katsina state.
The 60 seconds clip showed the skeletal creature which partly resembled a man but had two horns, standing on two feet by the side of a main road in a desert-like environment.
It stood upright and stretched backwards to give off an exhausting roar before running four feet into the desert like a philodromus.
In the voiceover which accompanied the video, a man speaking both Arabic and Hausa could be heard saying that the creature was the third “demon” coming around.
Although the man did not mention any location, he advised residents of the area to go inside to avoid being caught by the “demon”.
Speaking to his companion, he urged that they entered a house to hide as the creature had seen them, but when it turned away and ran off into the desert, he concluded it was “going to town”.
How true is this claim? The video has since been shared severally online and the “alien invasion” is said to have occurred in Katsina state on 3rd March 2023, according to twitter user @MuniraJibrillaU.
Another user, Ola Oyedeji, also tweeted: “If the story is fake, why remove the video? I believe someone is hiding something. It was live at ring road Katsina”.
However, the Police Public Relations officer for Katsina State Command Isah Gambo, described the video as untrue and mischievous.
Gambo said the viral video in its entirety was “fake and an attempt to disrupt the relative peace enjoyed by the good people of the state by some mischievous element”.
“Members of the general public are hereby urged not to panic and disregard the fake video and its malicious content” the Police spokesperson added.
The Police, however, did not say how they came to the conclusion that the video was fake. Efforts by this newspaper to independently verify the video did not yield any positive result, and neither did checks for reports of an alleged alien invasion in the state prior to this time.
Verdict: Missing context. The content of the viral video may be misleading without additional context.