A post shared hundreds of times on Facebook claims that the Nigerian presidency imposed a curfew to allow Chinese companies to build 5G masts.
AFP Fact Check ran multiple reverse image searches to find the original\xa0picture of a 5G mast seen in the post. We traced the image to the archives of Getty Images, which state\xa0that the\xa0picture was taken in Cardiff, UK by photographer Matthew Horwood. s, “A 5G mobile phone mast on April 04, 2020 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. There have been isolated cases of 5G phone masts being vandalised following claims online that the masts are responsible for coronavirus,” the caption reads., Online conspiracy theories blaming 5G networks for the pandemic fuelled attacks on 5G towers last month in some European countries, including Britain and Cyprus. Experts sharply rejected the theory, as AFP Fact Check reported., Following the spread of misinformation around COVID-19 and 5G, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) explained that 5G licences have not been issued to any telecommunication network in the country., “There is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment,” the NCC said on its website in April. “The NCC back in November 2019 approved trial test for 5G for a period of three (3) months, and the trial has been concluded and installation decommissioned”., As AFP reported, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a lockdown of two states -- Lagos, Ogun -- and the Federal Capital Territory at the end of March\xa0to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus., The president eased the lockdown on May 4\xa0but imposed a night-time curfew. The move fuelled new rounds of misinformation like this misleading post about 5G installation., NCC spokesman Henry Nkemadu\xa0released another statement on May 10 reiterating\xa0that there was currently no 5G rollout\xa0in the country., The NCC “has unequivocally stated that there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment”, he said, adding that claims suggesting the opposite "cannot be further from the truth"., AFP journalists in Lagos also confirm that there have been no signs of 5G mast installations\xa0in the state., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Nigeria imposed a curfew to slow the spread of COVID-19 and has not yet set up 5G networks | AFP Fact Check