The photos included in the post show an incident in Iran, not Nigeria.
There was no bomb explosion in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Tuesday morning, contrary to online claims that also said dozens had been killed.
“Breaking News: A bomb blast rocked Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, early this morning, leaving at least 26 people dead and several others injured,” a Facebook post, opens new tab on April 29 said.
The post also cited unnamed security sources as saying the explosion was a failed assassination attempt on Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima and said a cordon had been erected around the scene.
No specific location details were given about the scene, though three photos – two showing billowing smoke and a third showing a car wreck – were included.
A link to an online blog, opens new tab with verbatim text was also included in the post.
However, there were no credible reports of a bomb explosion killing 26 people in the Nigerian capital, a city home to an estimated 4.2 million people,, opens new tab nor any announcements from Nigerian authorities. The photos included in the post show an incident in Iran, not Nigeria.
The vice president’s spokesperson, Stanley Nkwocha, said in a WhatsApp message to Reuters that the claim was “fake news”.
Reuters also reached out to Nigeria’s Police Force, opens new tab, the federal fire service, the national emergency agency, and multiple hospitals in Abuja, but none were immediately available for comment.
Abuja-based security consultancy Beacon Security and Intelligence told Reuters that no such explosion had occurred.
“This is to clarify, following appropriate channels and our review process, that the report alleging an explosion in the FCT linked to an assassination attempt on the Vice President on the morning of April 29, 2025, is false,” a spokesperson for the firm said in an email.
The three photos included in the Facebook post are also unrelated to Abuja. They show the aftermath of an explosion at a port in Iran on April 26.
The first photo, opens new tab of thick smoke rising behind a stack of shipping containers matches a cropped image published, opens new tabby Iran’s Mehr News Agency, the second is an image, opens new tab of a damaged vehicle following the port blast featuring Xinhua branding distributed, opens new tab by AFP, and the third is an AFP-distributed, opens new tab, Xinhua-branded image, opens new tab of smoke rising from the blast site.
At least 70 people died in the explosion, which took place in the Shahid Rajee section of the port.
Facebook users circulated the Abuja blast claim a day after 26 people were killed in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, the heartland of an Islamist insurgency, when two vehicles detonated an improvised explosive device.
VERDICT
False. No such explosion occurred. A spokesperson for the Vice President’s Office as well as a Nigeria-based security consultancy told Reuters separately that the social media claim is false.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN REUTERS