The Lagos state commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, says the cybercrime unit of the force has been mandated to fish out those spreading misinformation to cause unrest in the state.
Owohunwa said residents of the state should disregard old videos of riots being circulated as current events going on in Lagos.
In a statement issued by Benjamin Hundeyin, the command’s spokesperson, on Monday, Owohunwa said the cybercrime unit of the command has been mandated to arrest “people behind this deliberate misinformation for immediate prosecution”.
“The good people and residents of Lagos state are urged to disregard all forms of messages, especially on social media depicting fictitious, fallacious, and divisive claims aimed at jeopardising the peace currently being enjoyed in the state,” he said.
“Once again, the command assures Lagosians that all human and operational resources at its disposal have been fully and optimally deployed, especially at vulnerable points, including major markets across the state to ensure a total forestalling of the breakdown of law and order in the state.”
The police statement comes amid growing cases of misinformation with the embellishment of ethnic profiling, shared online by faceless netizens.
This scaremongering and fake news intensified after Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of the state, was announced as the winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
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