Kidnap: Teacher arrested for ‘spreading fake news’

From Nicholas Kalu, Abuja

The Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the police has arrested 34-year-old Grace Ibrahim, a teacher, for allegedly spreading false information that a policeman was involved in the kidnap of Kaduna-based medical doctor Philip Ataga’s wife and her two children.

The doctor’s wife and two little children were abducted in January 25, 2020 in their Kaduna home in the Juji area of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The children were released on February 6, 2020, but their mother was killed by the kidnappers.

In a post that went viral, Ibrahim had said one of the children had identified a neighbour, who is a policeman, as the person that ordered the shooting of their mother.

Ibrahim, who was paraded at the Force Headquarters, apologised for the viral message, saying she did not verify it before spreading it.

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Force spokesman DCP Frank Mba, who paraded the suspect, said, “While we were working on that case, we woke up to a very damaging viral post that made allegations to the effect that a policeman was implicated in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the deceased. It was a very damaging insinuation and our operatives immediately set out to investigate the source and origin of that story. Today after days of investigation, we traced that post that went viral to the young lady here, Grace Ibrahim, a teacher, who from nowhere originated that post.

“This is a classic example of fake news which is not only  irresponsible, but can actually set the people against the police. This kind of story has the capacity of damaging the very important relationship between the police and members of the public.

“I use this opportunity to appeal to members of the public, particularly our teeming youths, to exercise a lot of caution in the use of the social media. You have to be circumspect before you push out that story.”

Grace Ibrahim said, “I apologise to the police for putting out information that was false because I did not verify it. It was based on hearsay, and I just put it out there. I did not think about the implication and I am very sorry because the information was false. I heard it from a colleague. I wish to apologise.

“I did not confirm and decided to post, which was bad of me. When I saw it was going viral, I decided to pull it down because that was when I realised what I did was wrong and I really want to apologise to the police.”