Video of drug crackdown in Ghana misrepresented as xenophobic attack on Nigerian shops

Yahoo

22-07-2025

A video shared on social media claims to show Ghanaians destroying shops allegedly owned by Nigerians of Igbo descent, fueling tensions surrounding the presence of Igbos in Ghana. However, the claim is false. AFP Fact Check found that local youths destroyed the stalls during a drug crackdown targeting shops allegedly involved in selling illicit drugs in Ghana's capital, Accra.
'Ghanaians destroying Igbo shops saying Igbo must leave their country,' reads the caption of a Facebook reel published on July 14, 2025 and shared in Nigeria.
The Igbo people are primarily from southeastern Nigeria (archived here).
Shared more than 6,000 times, the video shows men pulling down stalls in a market.
The post was published by an account called 'Efos Blog', which appears to share anti-Igbo content regularly.
The video was also posted on X with a similar claim here.
Igbos in Ghana
In recent weeks, Igbo people in Ghana have come under public scrutiny following the activities of Eze Chukwudi Jude Ihenetu, a self-styled monarch.
Ihenetu has referred to himself as the 'Igbo King' and reportedly claimed to have acquired land near the country's capital to build a cultural settlement — a development that triggered sharp backlash from youth groups and the traditional authorities in the West African country, particularly the Ga Traditional Council, which oversees the Greater Accra Region (archived here and here).
In a response, the traditional leader of Ga state, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, said the council did not recognise any foreign royal claim within their domain and ordered Ihenetu and his appointed chiefs to stop presenting themselves as traditional rulers (archived here).
While the incident drew widespread attention on social media, there were no reports of violence or targeted attacks on Nigerians of Igbo extraction or their properties as portrayed in the Facebook video reel.
Anti-drug abuse campaign
Using Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video, AFP Fact Check was led to a Facebook post dated April 20, 2025 (archived here).
The post, with the caption 'Massive Destruction At Zongo Market', was published by an account in Ghana.
Using the word combinations from the caption to conduct a Google search, AFP Fact Check found a news report by a local website Citi Newsroom, published on the same day as the Facebook video (archived here).
In the piece, the media reported that a group called 'No Drugs in Zongo Movement' launched a major crackdown at the Zongo market in Accra, which resulted in the closure of over 20 shops suspected of selling illicit substances.
The report also stated that the campaigners seized several sacks containing marijuana, codeine, Tramadol, and other illegal drugs.
AFP Fact Check reached out to Manuel Ayamah, the Citi Newsroom journalist who reported the piece. He confirmed that the 'crackdown was not targeted at any Nigerian community'.
'It was a general exercise in the Zongo,' Ayamah added.
The anti-drug abuse movement, in a statement sent to AFP on July 17, 2025, clarified that 'the structures being destroyed [in the video] were makeshift wooden stalls that had been illegally erected by individuals who used them to sell drugs.
'This exercise was conducted in collaboration with local authorities to sanitise the area and protect the well-being of the community.'