By Pascal Ibe
Claim
An Associate Professor, Dr Adamu Zango, has shared a screenshot of an arrested policeman with a claim that the Kaduna Deputy Commissioner of Police was arrested for supplying weapons to bandits and kidnappers.
Verdict
This claim is MISLEADING.
A simple Google Image Reverse Search showed that this was one Kingsley Udoyen, who was arrested for parading himself as an Assistant Commissioner of Police, on 2nd January 2019 by the Akwa Ibom police command.
Full Text
A learned Associate Professor who should know better, unfortunately, has begun 2025 with the deliberate spread of misinformation.
According to his bio on the X platform, Dr. Adamu Zango, a lecturer with over 30 years of experience in banking and academics, has shared a screenshot with a claim that the Kaduna Deputy Commissioner of Police was arrested for supplying weapons to bandits and kidnappers recently.
The screenshot shared by the lecturer didn’t bear the name of the Kaduna DCP arrested as well as when the incident happened.
Dr Adamu Zango shared the screenshot with a caption that reads, “THIS MAN IS THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE: KADUNA STATE
The X post garnered over 430k views, more than 2.9k reposts, and 7k likes, according to analytics.
FactWatch observed that this claim was also posted on Facebook pages recently.
Verification
First, this Fact Checker did a Google image Reverse Search, and the results led him to a 2021 report by an online newspaper, Solace Base, where the Police Command in Kaduna State refuted a social media report that it arrested a Deputy Commissioner of Police for giving arms to kidnappers.
The command’s Public Relations Officer then, ASP Mohammed Jalige, said that the person in the report was a criminal arrested in Akwa Ibom two years ago.
“The image with camouflage uniform, wearing the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police, is one of Kingsley Udoyem, who was arrested and paraded by Akwa-Ibom Police Command on 2nd January 2019 for the offense of impersonating a police officer.
To confirm further, this Fact Checker copied the keywords, “Kingsley Udoyem, who was arrested and paraded by Akwa-Ibom Police Command on 2nd January 2019”, and conducted a simple Google search. A news report in 2019 by Punch Online was found which corroborated the earlier statement by the Kaduna police.
According to the more credible report, the Commissioner of Police in the state then Mr Musa Kimo, disclosed that the fake ACP had been using the rank to defraud and threaten unsuspecting members of the public.
He said during a police search of the suspect’s house, one English pistol without magazine and ammunition, portraits of the Chief Superintendent of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police, and other implicating items were discovered.
FACTWATCH Nigeria also discovered there are no basic details in the screenshot shared by the lecturer. Details such as the name of the Kaduna DCP and when the incident happened.
Conclusion
The claim that a DCP in Kaduna was arrested for supplying weapons to bandits and kidnappers is MISLEADING as it was a photo of the fake ACP who was arrested in Akwa Ibom State in 2019.
