By Pascal Ibe
Sources of misinformation can appear highly convincing and similar to trusted legitimate sources. For example, misinformation cited with hyperlinks has been found to increase readers’ trust. Trust is even higher when these hyperlinks are to scientific journals, and higher still when readers do not click on the sources to investigate for themselves.
Research has also shown that the presence of relevant images alongside incorrect statements increases both their believability and shareability, even if the images do not actually provide evidence for the statement.
For more than two days now, photo of back of a wounded man surfaced on many Nigeria WhatsApp groups.
The photo was accompanied by claim that an NYSC member, named Michael Uwakwe was tortured by the police Zamfara for punishing his student.
The claim attached to the viral photo reads, “Please, read and share widely.
We should all call for justice or else scrap the NYSC scheme. Who would have his son or daughter so battered?
[23/07, 14:44] Chike Sibeudu: WHO WILL HEAR AND NOT CRY?
The entire corps members serving in Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State, are bleeding out purple blood. Our hearts are thumping out strong rhythms of pain. Our dignity has been trampled and mangled with reckless impunity. God!
Today, a corps member, Michael, serving his fatherland through sweat and bile; rough roads, hunger, merciless weather; and the shame of N19,800 in the face of a smothering economy. Michael- serving in Nasara Standard Academy, perceived as the shining light in a tottering secondary education system in Kaura Namoda- was today brutalised, manhandled and reduced to nothingness by a brainless team comprising of the richest man in Kaura Namoda and his equally wanton boys. What was his crime?
Michael had punished his student who happens to be this man’s ward. A simple kneel down. Michael who had nurtured these block heads with patience and love. Michael, who had taught with empty stomach till letters on the chalkboard danced like rampant music notes before his eyes. For all of us like Michael who have stretched the capacities of our strengths and sensibilities to serve a stifling system. For all the ‘ under the sun and in the rain’, what have we gotten as reward?
This notorious man, clenching his cash-ridden fists, recruits the help of the Police and in that shameless trotting of Zombies, storms Nasara Academy to crucify Michael like a criminal. He was punched like a sack of millet and stripped of humanity. He was beaten, beaten, and again beaten like he stole karats of gold in a jungle market. O God! My fingers are itching, and it’s like they will drip blood. Michael was driven to the Police Station where the real torture awaited him.
They removed what was left of his pride as a Man serving his country. Then, they flogged and flogged him, and when their energy sapped out, the Evil of a man threw wads of naira notes about, and refueled their animalism. Michael was a heap of sorrow and a container of hot painful tears. As some of Michael’s colleagues arrived and tried to raise their voices against the escalating reign of heartlessness; the Police men, some apparently drunk, threatened with pointed rifles, slapping and pushing them….
Hear me if you are a corps member in Kaura Namoda! We have been abused to our bones. We are now just remnants of pride sliced into irredeemable pieces. Our hearts have been pierced by hot pellets of searing pain. Our heads are now buried in shame. The little essence of our ghostly existence has been thoroughly erased. We are now empty, just plain empty.
Who will hear this and not cry? How can we move about when our sinews are depleted? Who will walk the long and dusty paths to schools to teach? Who will serve the masters under a sun that burns through skin and fluid? Who will hear this and not cry?
Nothing has been done. The engineer of this massive evil is an untouchable. A stinkingly rich sacred goat. He has played ping pong with our dignity and thinks he will get away with it because he is rich. Because our society is rotten and deceased of sense. Because our policeman are a bunch of kitted area boys. Because ‘money’ has shredded the spines of our moral make-up.
Michael is lying in a police cell, writhing in raw pain—- a soul beaten beyond repair. He has been physically wounded but more serious is the mental injury. But he is not alone. We are all wounded like Michael and our soul is burning from strife. Who will hear this and not cry? We therefore call on:
The State Government;
The State Coordinator NYSC;
The Emir of Kaura Namoda;
The Commissioner of Police;
Every Khaki and Jungle boot in Zamfara state and Nigeria as a whole. Let us roar and be heard. Tell the next person to tell another. Let our tales of woe reach the peak where justice crouches. The brutalisation of Michael in a land where he is vulnerable and hapless will not go without notice. Justice must be done. Corps members must be protected. Our dignity must be restored. The pride of khaki and Jungle boots must be reinvented.
Today, Michael was battered for all of us. Shall we hear and look away…who will hear this AND NOT CRY?
[23/07, 15:28] Venerable Segun Agbetuyi: The Corps members ought to formally petition the State Commissioner of Police, with copy to the President & the VP. The petition with photo evidence should be copied to both the print & electronic media & to genuine human rights lawyers. So devilish & unfortunate. We should all give it the widest broadcast.😥“
A concerned Nigerian sent this claim to thefactwatch on WhatsApp to fact check.
Verification
A search on Google lens showed that this photo has been used widely by many news organizations and blogs especially in articles relating to human rights abuses.
Checks on an image verifier, indicated that the photo of back of a wounded man appeared 27 tomes on TineEye.
Sort by oldest on TinEye, this photo was found first on Pintaga.com on September 7, 2017.
Thefactwatch cited a police statement in 2017 which refuted this claim which attributed the photo of back of a wounded man to be Michael Uwakwe, an NYSC member in Zamfara.
According to Shehu Mohammed, Mohammed Shehu, public relations officer for the Zamfara Police Command, confirmed that Michael Uwakwe was assaulted in 2017 but the photo used in the claim is a wrong photo.
“The photo used in the claim is not that of the corps member who was punished in 2017. Also, the corps member was not tortured and brutalised.”
Investigation by African Check revealed that an article on the blog of the Italian fact-checker David Puente shows that the photo is of a special effect created by Nigerian make-up artist, Hakeem Onilogbo, in 2014.
The NYSC Assault Incident In Zamfara
When we typed a keyword Micheal Uwakwe NYSC Zamfara on Google, many news organizations in Nigeria reported that an NYSC corps member, Micheal Uwakwe was assaulted by the police for disciplining his student.
A report by Punch newspaper in 2017 showed the real photo of the NYSC corps member, Micheal Uwakwe who was assaulted by the police in Zamfara.
A report by News Agency Of Nigeria (NAN), published on Premium Times on March 8, 2017, revealed that the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has redeployed a corps member, Michael Uwakwe, serving in Zamfara to Anambra, following his assault by a police officer.
Victoria Okakwu, the NYSC Director, Corps Welfare and Inspectorate, made this known to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mrs. Okakwu explained that the corps member was redeployed to ensure his safety and security while carrying out his national assignment.
Narrating what happened, Okakwu said that after proper investigations and resolution of the matter the scheme has also ordered the immediate withdrawal of 11 other corps members who were serving along with Uwakwe at Nasara Standard Academy, Gusau.
“On Wednesday last week we got information from Zamfara state that a corps member was beaten by the police, arrested, detained and later released.
When we got this information I had to speak to the state coordinator to investigate the matter thoroughly. From our investigations, the corps member had a problem in the school he was posted to serve.
“He came into the class and said he was going to give the students a test asking them to put their books away and get ready but that this student was not just cooperative.
“In the process of doing the test she hissed and he asked why she will hiss in the class because it was a rude behaviour but she had nothing to say after a while she hissed again and he went to her to ask why again.
“The next thing he saw written on her script was `Nonsense Tes’. That got him infuriated and he asked the student if the questions he set were out of what he had taught them.
“The girl will not answer so he instructed her to kneel down. In the process he asked her to crawl with her knees and after that he left; later he came to look for the girl and she was no where to be found.
“The girl went home, spoke to her father and he went to the police. The corps member was in the staff room when he was called that he was needed in the principal’s office.
“When he got there he was asked to go with the police but he declined stating that he was just doing his job but he later agreed to go to the police station if the principal will go with him.
“He went with the principal to the police station and in the station he was slapped and detained for six hours,” Okakwu said.
Verdict
The claim with photo of back of a wounded man attributed to be an NYSC corps member, Micheal Uwakwe is Misleading.
The real Michael Uwakwe had minor injuries and was redeployed to Anambra State from Zamfara State in 2017 after the incident.
Please note that thefactwatch is a verification platform owned by CrimeFacts news
