FACT CHECK: Viral images of suspects arrested over theft of police station signpost is from 2024
FACT CHECK: Viral images of suspects arrested over theft of police station signpost is from 2024
Several social media users have published a post claiming that two men were arrested by police officers for allegedly stealing a signpost belonging to a police station in Kano.
Some of those who published the post on social media blamed hunger for being responsible for the theft and also insinuated that it was recent.
The viral post was accompanied with the pictures of the two men.
An Instagram page — northern_trend — with over 160,000 followers published the post with the caption: “Two Suspects Arr3sted For Staling Police Station Signpost In Kano State”. (archived here)
The Instagram post was accompanied by six pictures, including one showing the alleged stolen police signpost.
An X user — @manus0024 — published the picture of one of the two men with the caption: “He was Arr3sted For Stealing Police Station Signpost. Best mugshot so far.” (archived here).
The X post generated over 100 reposts, 100 likes, and 28 comments.
Another X user — @NewNgis Possible — published the pictures with the caption: “Two Sυsρects Arr3ste∂ For Stëαliηg Police Station Signpost In Kano State. Hunger everywhere.” (archived here).
VERIFICATION
A reverse image search of one of the pictures of the men shows that the images were first shared on social media by Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, Kano police spokesperson, in August 2024, via a Facebook post.
On August 14, 2024, Kiyawa published the pictures of the two men alongside that of the police signpost with the caption written in Hausa language.
“The person who stole the Bachirawa Police Station signpost and the person who received it have been apprehended. Residents of the neighborhood have provided a new signpost. We thank the community of Bachirawa,” the caption was translated to English.
Credible media platforms like Channels Television and Guardian also published the report of the incident in August 2024.
VERDICT
The report of the arrest of two suspects over the theft of a police station signpost in Kano happened in August 2024.
