A Nigerian blogger has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly publishing a ‘fake’ post on Twitter against the commission.
The EFCC in a statement on Thursday said Dikeocha Chukwuebuka, with the Twitter handle @TheRealDayne, misled people to believe that a photo of a “crowded open cell” he published on the social media site was a detention cell of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
The photo was fake, the EFCC said.
The head of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Usman Imam, told journalists in Port Harcourt that the blogger, Mr Chukwuebuka was picked up around 4 p.m. on Wednesday in a bank premises in the city.
Mr Imam said Mr Chukwuebuka’s tweet was the “most embarrassing moment for the Commission, given that the ‘fake news’ represented the very opposite of what the EFCC stands for, as far as care of detainees is concerned”.
He said the commission would investigate the matter and ensure that justice is done.
The EFCC statement said the blogger admitted he published the photo in error and apologised to the commission and its followers on Twitter.
Mr Chukwuebuka on February 10 posted a photo of some bared-bodied young men crammed into a place that looks like a detention facility.
“As Spotted Today @OfficialEFCC zonal office in PH, what’s your take on this?” he commented on the photo which he tagged the Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, and five other persons.
The photo, which had more than 2,000 retweets, went viral on the social media site with most commenters attacking the EFCC for it, despite the commission coming out to say the photo was fake.
Two days after he published the photo, Mr Chukwuebuka published another tweet recanting it.
“Please, after further investigation, I have realized that my tweet was not that of efcc, but of police command and I apologize to @officialEFCC and the general public, but I urge the government to look into the picture so as to investigate the issue,” he had said on the social media site.
He had promised to visit the EFCC office in Port Harcourt to physically tender an apology to the commission.
The EFCC spokesperson in Abuja, Tony Orilade, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday afternoon that Mr Chukwuebuka was still being detained by the commission. He was yet to be charged to court.
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