Fake detention centre photos: EFCC arrests P/Harcourt blogger

Thursday, February 27, 2020 2:47 pm

Dikeocha Chukwuebuka

…Suspect apologizes to EFCC, Nigerians for the mischief.

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, South South Zone, Port Harcourt, have tracked down and arrested one Dikeocha Chukwuebuka, a blogger with tweeter account @ The Real Dayne, who posted a photo alleged to be that of suspects in a overcrowded cell belonging to the anti-graft agency on February 10, 2020.

Chukwuebuka was paraded before journalists at EFCC, Port Harcourt Office by Usman Imam, the head of Port Harcourt Zonal Office on Thursday.

Imam said the suspect was arrested at a new generation bank along Ada George road, Port Harcourt at 4 pm on Wednesday, February 26.

The EFCC operative told journalists that the fake news posted by the suspect was shocking and embarrassing to the Commission because there was no such crowded detention centre owned by the anti-graft agency.

Iman recalled that the he had vowed that the Commission would deploy its resources to track down the harbinger of the fake photograph when journalists were invited on a tour of the anti-graft agency’s detention facilities when the fake photograph tweeted by the blogger went viral about two weeks ago.

Imam

He added that the feat of tracking and eventually arresting the suspect in record time of about two weeks of the manhunt is a testimony that the slogan of the Commission, which is:”EFCC will get you, anywhere anytime,” is very true.

He assured that the suspect will have his day in court after thorough investigations despite his apologies so that his case will serve as a deterrent to others.

He added that when those who commit crimes in the society go unpunished, crimes and criminalities prevail.

During an interview with journalists, Chukwuebuka agreed that he tweeted the photograph which misled the public to believe that a ,”crowded cell” existed in Port Harcourt office of EFCC, though he knew the claim was not true.

According to him, “I apologize to the Commission and the nation for the embarrassment the fake photo news that I posted have caused. The photos have nothing to do with EFCC cell facilities. l am indeed sorry. l’m ready to assist the Commission in any way I can, ” he said.

Asked the motive behind the fake news, the suspect initially he claimed a friend gave him the photographs.

But he later he owned up that he snapped the photographs himself from the window of an storey building somewhere, but post it as a detention facility of EFCC in Port Harcourt.

However ,Imam warned Nigerian bloggers, especially the young ones, who are desperate for huge online traffic to make money to be a little circumspect in using news which they have not checked.

“It is important that social media influencers do some fact-checking before publishing to save the society from the ordeal of fake news”, Imam warned.