Claim: Facebook users are circulating an image of a man wearing police camouflage with the claim that he is a Kaduna State Deputy Commissioner of Police who was arrested with kidnappers when he went to supply them firearms.
The image and content in circulation are that of a Police imposter arrested in Akwa Ibom in 2019 and therefore cannot be that of a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Kaduna. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
Full Text
The picture of a man wearing a police camouflage in what appeared to be a Nigerian-styled parade of criminals is being circulated by social media users with the caption that he is an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State. According to a Facebook post by Araba Kayode, it is the image of a Kaduna State Deputy Commissioner of Police and his accomplices after they were arrested while the alleged DCP was supplying weapons to kidnappers. Before this recent circulation, Ayonla MultiMedia had posted on April 13, 2021, the same image with the caption: “Kaduna State Deputy Commissioner of Police went to give arms to kidnappers, unfortunately, he was arrested with them. Hmm! Wonders shall never end. The post received over 1,000 comments and was shared over 12, 000 times.
Verification
Dubawa first traced the origin of the image by using Yandex Reverse Image search which revealed that the picture has been shared several times and goes as far back as 2019. The image was also traced to several counter narratives and even fact checks in the past that stated that the image of the alleged Deputy Commissioner of Police was fake. Several reports published in 2019 show that the man from the image in question was arrested in January 2019 for impersonating a police officer. Nigerian Police Spokesman, CP Frank Mba, who was then a Deputy Commissioner of Police had then said: “The suspect in Police uniform with the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police, is one Kingsley Udoyen, male, 56 years, of No 3, Stadium Road, Abak, Akwa Ibom State is a fake Police officer and not a serving Assistant Commissioner of Police.”
For further clarification, Dubawa reached out to the Kaduna State Police Command which equally debunked the claim. The Command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Jalige, said the attention of the state’s command was drawn to what he described as “fake news making round on social media,” alleging that “Kaduna State Deputy Commissioner of Police went to give firearms to kidnappers; unfortunately, he was arrested with them.”
ASP Jalige said the image in circulation was not that of any police officer in Kaduna Command or anywhere in Nigeria adding that: “The image with camouflage uniform wearing the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police is one Kinsley Udoyem who was arrested and paraded by Akwa-Ibom Police Command on the 2nd January 2019 for the offence of impersonating a Police Officer.” He urged the public to disregard the fake claim and stop its circulation.
Conclusion
This shows that the content with the image in circulation is fake; the man in the camouflage police uniform is an impersonator that was arrested in Akwa Ibom in 2019 and not in Kaduna State.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Daily Trust to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.