This tweet with a video, supposedly of Nigerien Finance minister crying after being told to account for all stolen money in the next 48 hours or face execution is FALSE.

The tweet claims that the new military leadership in Niger tasked the minister with accounting for the money stolen in the country. On 26 July 2023, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted by the military for what coup leaders claimed was “due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance”.

A video of a person weeping uncontrollably while wiping tears with a green cloth is attached to the tweet. A hand is seen trying to comfort the person who later calms down for a few minutes, wears glasses and then sips water.

The video was posted with no caption on TikTok by “@djiboamadou22”.

PesaCheck performed a reverse search of one of the video’s keyframes to check the legitimacy of the video. This led to three different people who shared the recording in 2021. The video was posted on Twitter by “Niger News”, a Nigerien media house, on 29 December 2021.

The video description was: “The crying of the former Minister of Justice (2011–2021), Mr. Maro Amdo, during his praise of the former presidents of Niger, especially the former President of the Republic, Muhammadu Issoufou, with whom he worked for (10) years as Minister of Justice, is causing controversy on social media”.

The video was also posted by “Niamey Délires” on 28 December 2021, with a French caption translated to; “Marou Amadou banned? Is it a tribute to the former president that makes you cry?”

A third publication called “The Nigerien Eye” posted the video on 28 December 2021, with a French caption translated to; “In tears, Marou Amadou, former Minister of Justice, thanks Issoufou Mahamadou for having “given everything” to him.”

Amadou, who was launching a company dubbed CERCRASH, asked for a minute of prayer in memory of the South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on 26 December 2021. Amadou got emotional while paying tribute to former Nigerien Heads of State Diori Hamani, Seyni Kountché, Ali Sebou, Mahamane Ousmane, and Ibrahim Mainassara Baré. The others were Daouda Mallam Wanké, Mamadou Tandja, and Salou Djibou. The former Justice minister showered praises on Issoufou Mahamadou.

The CERCASH launch was also covered by two other Nigerien news organisations, as seen here and here.

The Finance minister at the time of the 2023 Nigerien military coup was not Marou Amadou but Ahmat Jidoud, as seen on the Nigerien Ministry of Finance website. Jidoud does not resemble the person in the video we are fact-checking.

PesaCheck has looked into a tweet claiming to show a video of Nigerien Finance minister crying after being told to account for all the stolen money in the next 48 hours or face execution and found it to be FALSE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.