LAGOS State Police Command has described as falsehood a report published by a section of the media stating that a lady found to be having sex in a viral video is dead.
Disclosing this in a statement on Friday, the 13th of May, 2022, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, the Command Spokesperson, said investigation conducted revealed that the story was a cover up by some accomplices in the matter.
“The attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to a publication with the above caption dated May 10, 2022 and credited to one Kayode Ajiboye of Independent Newspapers.
“As this borders on an ongoing police investigation, the Lagos State Police Command reached out to the author of this article for information that would help the police conclude/close the investigation.
“Shockingly, however, the author claimed he could not verify the story but simply lifted it from an online blog. Not only did this author not credit the original source (plagiarism) of the news in consonance with simple ethics of journalism, he also made no attempt to fact-check the news, thereby making himself susceptible to the spreading of fake news, especially knowing how critical and sensitive the facts in issue were.
“Available facts suggest that the author is in cahoot with the wanted suspect to help her evade justice, which in itself is a criminal offence.
“While it is the duty of every Nigerian to support the police in any ongoing investigation, it is an established fact that it is criminal to publish false information with intent to mislead the public. It is equally criminal to subvert criminal investigation and obstruct police officers in the discharge of their duties.
“In line with its stance on transparency, the Lagos State Police Command brings this update to Nigerians and gives assurances that the ongoing investigation has been re-focused appropriately. While available leads are being followed, the Command encourages anyone with useful information on the matter to make same available to the police using any of our available communication channels.”
