The rise of “fake news” and the proliferation of doctored narratives that are spread by humans and bots online are challenging publishers and platforms. Those trying to stop the spread of false information are working to design technical and human systems that can weed it out and minimize the ways in which bots and other schemes spread lies and misinformation.
For every fact there is a counterfact and all these counterfacts and facts look identical online, which is confusing to most people.
The truth, as the cliché goes is bitter. And many fake news have been flying around since that unfortunate incident happened in Lagos, Nigeria engaging truth in a fierce battle of wits.
Since that shooting it is only DJ Switch, one of the dramatis personae of the Lekki Shootings and the artiste who covered it live that has issued a video on Instagram, where she said 15 people were killed. Though that claim has yet to be substantiated.
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DJ Switch: claims 15 #EndSARS protesters died from shooting at Lekki |
Still, fake news is on the prowl, and the high number of casualties in the Lekki Toll Gate Shootings is not the only sensational story flying around that has not been proved yet. Others that have been peddled in the days leading to that shooting later turned out to be false. However, before they were proven to be fake news they had done so much damage to our individual and collective psyche.
One of such fake news that made the rounds immediately after the Lekki Toll Gate Shootings was the photo of a man carrying a lady clad in a blood-stained flag. Many believed that lady was killed in that onslaught. Popular Nigerian artiste, Yemi Alade, who has over 12miliion followers on Instagram, even shared that photo on her account. But when a lady drew her attention to it, saying that photo was fake, she deleted that post. But that image was also shared by many Nigerians.
That photo, which many peddled around as one of the aftermaths of the Lekki Toll Gate Shootings, was not taken there. Rather it was originally taken from a drama staged by the Akwa Ibom state chapter of the Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF). The drama, entitled: “Lord, Heal Our Land”, was staged in commemoration of Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary held on October 1.
“The lady in question is alive. We are standing with the youth on the #EndSARS and the #EndPoliceBrutality peaceful protest. We call for a new Nigeria where peace, righteousness an justice reigns,” the statement read.
Another photo that made the rounds in the days leading to that Lekki Shootings was that of a lady crying on a statue while holding up a wrapped up Nigerian flag. It was said that the lady refused to fly the flag in protest of her three US-based brothers who were extorted and killed by SARS and their bodies dumped in a well immediately after they arrived in Nigeria.
That photo later turned to be false when the lady in question, Ugwu Blessing Ugochukwu, who was one of the #EndSARS protesters in the South-East, debunked it. According to her, though she was detained sometime by SARS sometime in 2018, none of her brothers were killed by them. Betty Irabor, journalist, publisher and mental health advocate, tweeted a screenshot revealing a conversation with the girl who denied losing her brothers.
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Ugwu Blessing Ugochukwu: says contrary to the claim on the social media, her three brothers were not killed by SARS officers |
Still, a day after the Lekki Shooting, social media was rife with the story of how Oke Obi-Enadhuze a software developer who helped build a blood donation app for Life Bank Services, was killed by the police in Makinde Police Station when a stray bullet from a shootout between them and thugs hit him on his neck. The intriguing thing about Obi-Enadhuze’s death is that the fresh graduate of the University Of Ado-Ekiti was killed three hours after he had tweeted: “Nigeria will not end me.”
However, even though that story had gone viral on the internet, it turned out to be false. Obi-Enadhuze’s brother, Daniel, later said in a series of tweets that his brother was not killed by a stray bullet, as was earlier reported, but was stabbed by thugs that had attacked the police station. But before then the story had done a lot of damage, as it had fuelled an already tense situation in the day following the Lekki Toll Gate onslaught.
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Oke Obi-Enadhuze: not killed by stray bullet |
“The attack went on for hours before the thugs eventually breached the police and proceeded to set the station on fire, after accomplishing this, they set their sights to the barracks and began the assault, they proceeded to destroy every car in the barracks, my mum’s two cars were destroyed and set on fire and then they infiltrated our house by breaking the door.
“They then proceeded to ransack the house and carted away everything we own, my brother on trying to get them to take everything but spare us was pushed to my mom’s room and stabbed on ,the neck, the attacker then proceeded to attack me but missed my neck but got my chin instead,” Daniel tweeted
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Professor Wole Soyinka: warns against fake news |
“That statement impudently expounds, as my utterance, what the Hausa want, what the Yoruba want, and what the Igbo want. Such an attribution – let me once again reiterate – is the work of sick, cowardly minds that are ashamed, or lack the courage, as the saying goes, ‘to answer their fathers’ names. At least the current ethnic rabble-rouser has the courage of his convictions, not so the sick brigade of identity thieves.
“Normally, one should totally ignore the social dregs. However, in the present atmosphere where fake news is so easily swallowed and acted upon without reflection, I feel once again obliged to denounce this recurrent obscenity.
“As for our brother and sister Igbo, I hope they have learnt to ignore the toxic bilge under which some Nigerian imbeciles seek to drown the nation,” Soyinka maintained.
Soyinka also implored social media platforms to stop being avenues for people to peddle fake news, especially ones intended to cause ethnic tensions. “It is time also, I believe, to also enter the following admonition: one cannot continue to monitor and respond to the concoctions of these addicts of falsehood, and their assiduous promoters who have yet to learn to wipe the filth off their tablets.
“The patrons of social platforms should develop the art of discrimination. Some attributions are simply so gross that, to grant them even a moment’s latitude of probability diminishes the civic intelligence of the recipient,” he said.
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Tinubu with Sanwo-Olu: denies leaving the country during EndSARS protest despite viral fake claims to the contrary |
“I didn’t go nowhere; I’m a Lagosian and I still hold the title of Asiwaju of Lagos and I am still a Jagaban.
“Fake news is all over the place. They said Seyi my son was kidnapped and was chased but look at him. I didn’t pay a penny to bring him here,” he said.
Fake news is indeed everywhere. Funke Egbemode, Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, State of Osun, has also drawn the attention of the media to a fake statement purportedly issued by a so-called Ministry of Information and Strategy in her state.
“I have seen a fake statement purportedly issued by the Ministry of Information and Strategy. For one, there’s no Ministry of Information and Strategy in Osun. Two, no statement has emanated on the Ede incident from the State Government and most importantly, I do not speak or write English as used in the fake statement. I sincerely appreciate those who have called to show concern and support. God bless you.”
Nehru Odeh is a Nigerian writer and journalist. Author of The Patience of an Embattled Storyteller, a book that foresaw the adoption, rape and murder of females by terrorists in Nigeria, his interests include popular culture, the arts, politics, business and sports.