Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The Katsina State Police Command claimed that viral video clips of Katsina residents booing President Muhammadu Buhari in the state were doctored.
In a statement on Thursday, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isah, described media reports that Buhari was booed in the state as “fallacious and mischievous”.
THISDAY had earlier reported that some residents of Katsina, suspected to be political thugs, booed President Buhari who was in the state on a two-day (Thursday and Friday) official visit.
The protest began at the newly constructed Kofar Kaura underpass when the thugs started throwing stones at the crowd shortly after the inauguration of the project by the President.
But the command, in the statement, urged members of the general public to disregard the publications and the video clips as false, doctored and misleading.
It read: “The attention of the Katsina State Police Command has been drawn, to fallacious and mischievous publication and doctored videos alleging that the President was booed and /or stoned in the state.
“It is pertinent to set the records straight and for the avoidance of doubt, to state that after commissioning of Kofar Kaura underpass, Kofar Kaura Water works, and Revenue House but while at Darma Rice Mill, the Command received information that some Kauraye social miscreants from notorious Sabuwar Unguwa, were fighting at Kofar Kaura area and took advantage of the crowd to steal phones and other valuables from innocent persons.
“It was also gathered that some mischievous persons had used small children in causing apprehension in the area by throwing stones at the police patrol teams deployed to arrest the miscreants in the area.”
“The Command has succeeded in arresting eight suspected persons in connection with the offence and are assisting the police in their investigation. The Command urges members of the general public to disregard the publications/videos as false, doctored and misleading.”
The statement quoted the state’s Commissioner of Police, Shehu Umar Nadada, urging both conventional and social media practitioners to be honest and factual in their reportage and not to resort to misleading information capable of causing apprehension in the state.
