Why oga police go dey mislead Nigerians?
We were scrolling through the X platform in the last minutes of August 2024 when a post from the lead police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, caught our eyes.
‘Another set of APC (Armoured Personnel Carriers) is ready for commissioning by the president. This is commendable and awesome’ was what he posted.
This was all fine and good until the image that accompanied the post refreshed our memories.
Behold, it was the same image he used in the communication about the commissioning of police equipment in 2023 by former President Muhammadu Buhari and former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Baba Alkali.
How can President Bola Tinubu be commissioning the same Armoured Personnel Carriers former President Buhari commissioned in 2023?
It did not take long before the information verification feature of X, Community Notes, debunked the post with, ‘A reuse of the same content this year is simply propaganda’, attached under Adejobi’s post.
How are Nigerians supposed to hold the police and Mr President accountable when they cannot see the right images of the new equipment?
Below are reactions from some Nigerians.
Even the police is the most guilty of fake news pic.twitter.com/zM6bBcQ2cC
— MR FOWOSERE (@espeezeal) September 2, 2024
This administration go turn everybody to Mumu 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Orevaoghene (@franksdonald) September 2, 2024
It is unfortunate that a post from the lead spokesperson for the Nigerian police will need a community note debunking it as false information.
Misinformation involving public officials is one of the drivers of citizens’ distrust in governance. And when this practice continues, citizens are more likely to distance themselves from actively participating in governance.
By now, the police spokesperson ought to have publicly apologised to Nigerians for sharing false information. The police and their personnel must ensure that they build public trust in their operations by guarding against spreading misinformation.
Photo source: Olumuyiwa Adejobi
