FALSE HEADLINE: This video claiming Puntland Parliament stripped MP  Liban Bedel’s immunity is a clickbait

The video is of parliament voting on the resignation letter from the lawmaker for personal reasons.

This video on Facebook with a caption claiming that Puntland State Parliament stripped lawmaker Liban Bedel of his immunity has a FALSE HEADLINE.

The video has a Somali title that translates to: “Puntland Parliament stripped a lawmaker of his immunity.”

In the video, the house speaker, Hon. Abdirizak, announced that a member of parliament had voluntarily resigned due to personal reasons. The parliamentary secretary read the resignation letter from Liiban Badal Sheikh Mahmud, who stated he was mentally fit and wished his resignation to be accepted. The house speaker then called for a vote, and 34 lawmakers accepted the resignation.

To confirm the authenticity of the video, we performed a Google reverse image search on a screengrab from the clip, which led us to this and this video reporting that the MP had resigned.

Puntland Mirror also performed a keyword search which yielded this and this video confirming the MP’s resignation.

Puntland Mirror examined the video and established that it has a false headline as the content of the video does not match its headline.

Our examination of the video content found that Parliament discussed and voted on the resignation letter from the lawmaker for personal reasons.

The Speaker of the House Abdirisak Ahmed Said told the lawmakers that MP Liban Bedel had submitted his resignation letter to the house for personal reasons and asked parliamentarians to vote on his resignation.

The Secretary General of Parliament read the letter to the lawmakers before starting the vote. 

Thirty-four MPs accepted the resignation, three MPs rejected it, three abstained, and two members of the house leadership did not vote.

Following the vote, the Speaker of the House Abdirisak Ahmed officially announced that the lawmakers had accepted the resignation of MP Liban Bedel.

To further verify the claim, Puntland Mirror contacted MP Liban Bedel who confirmed that he submitted his resignation letter to the house and that members of parliament accepted it in an open vote.

“This is a misleading headline. I officially submitted my resignation letter to the house,” he stated during a phone interview.

Puntland, located in the northeastern part of Somalia, is one of the five Federal Member States of Somalia.

Puntland Mirror looked into a video on Facebook with a caption claiming that Puntland State Parliament stripped lawmaker Liban Bedel of his immunity and found it to have a FALSE HEADLINE.

This fact-check was produced by Puntland Mirror  under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).