On Monday (August 1st), when #EndBadGovernance protesters (who are protesting against hardship and hunger in the country) commenced, there have been different news going around giving updates on the protests nationwide.
While different claims have been made, a claim that “Nyanya Police Station in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was burnt down by peaceful protesters,” has been fraught with an unbalanced narrative which is far from reality.
BACKGROUND
It was Imran Muhammad, an internet personality who identified on X (formerly Twitter) as “a Buharist, All Progressives Congress (APC) Member and Manchester United Fan, who first posted a video, showing a group of mobs and burning flames.
Muhammad, who has 153k followers on X, posted the video and captioned it, “Protesters have set fire to the police station in Nyanya, FCT,” by Muhammad. The video since then has gathered over 125k views. But has now been deleted.
From Muhammad, Nigeria Stories, an online outlet which says it is sharing “facts and amazing stories of Nigeria,” shared the video, while captioning it in the same narrative of Muhammad.
The video on the Nigeria Stories has gathered over 86.8k views.
THE TRUTH
Fact-checking the claim, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh confirmed with the PIJAlance when phoned that the claim, “Nyanya Police Station was burnt down,” was not true.
The FCT Police Command on X has also released a press statement, signed by PPRO Adeh, to debunk the claim.
According to the statement, the division was not burnt down by violent protesters. Adding that what only happened was the burning of the police container compartment at the Nyanya checkpoint.
The statement also added that an attempt was made to vandalise the “Tipper Garage Police post”. But the suspects who are: “Mathias Jude, 29 ‘m’ of Nyanya Area D, Mohammad Ahmed, 23, Abba Jibril, 18 and Mohammad Haruna, 18,” have been apprehended.
“Contrary to the news making rounds about Nyanya division being burnt down by violent protesters, the FCT police command wishes to state that it wasn’t the police division that was burnt but rather the police container compartment at Nyanya checkpoint that was set ablaze and the attempt to vandalize the Tipper garage Police post by four (4) suspects, Mathias Jude 29 ‘m’ of Nyanya Area D, Mohammad Ahmed 23, Abba Jibril 18 and Mohammad Haruna 18, who have been arrested.
“The commissioner of police FCT, CP Benneth C. Igweh, psc, mni, while acknowledging the right of residents to protest, frowns at the destruction of public or police infrastructure, as any violent protester arrested for destroying public property will be caused to face the wrath of the law.”
Read Also: ICYMI: IGP Says Peaceful Protest, “Ill-timed,” as Military Plan Intervention
Enoch Oyedibu
Brazen Investigative Journalist with a deep interest for tracking the grassroots impacts of government procurement.
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