‘Help Tackle This Woman’ – Police Unleash ‘Twitter Warriors’ To Attack #EndSARS Promoters, Others
In a bid to protect its image on the internet, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has engaged the services of a team of young boys whose main responsibility is to ‘fight’ anyone trying to drag its name through the mud.
The team has the task of scouting through social media platforms, especially Twitter, to attack people who unjustly criticize the Force, including promoters of the #EndSARS movement and other rights activists.
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A freelance reporter with THE WHISTLER bumped into the team at a designated room located inside the Police Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja.
Photos taken by our reporter showed the group of young boys dressed in mufti glued to their phones and could hardly notice who was coming in or going out of the room.
A police officer believed to be in charge of supervising the team was also seen punching his phone.
They were attacking the co-convener of #BringBackOurGirls and promoter of the #EndSARS movements, Aisha Yesufu, when our reporter walked into the room.
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She had shared a tweet that supposedly represented the police in bad light.
Yesufu, who is known for her fierce approach of checkmating excesses of the federal government, had taken to her Twitter to reiterate that the #EndSARS protest against police brutality was not hijacked as claimed by the government.
The activist had retweeted an old post of about six years, where she said: “Shame on the Rivers State Police Command for hefty armed Policemen tear-gassing unarmed women. They should have handled it better”.
She wrote above the reshared tweet: “Until @PoliceNG realise that their allegiance is to Nigeria and protecting the constitution and not to President and ruling party, we will continue to grapple with tyranny. We need massive reform there”.
Our reporter had eavesdropped the head of the team (name withheld) saying, “Help me tell this woman (Aisha Yesufu) to go and find a better job and join than forming a conspiracy against the police”.
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He then directed his boys to tackle Yesufu by leaving opposing comments under her post. Below are some the tweets believed to have been posted by members of the team:
