Like Ameerah, like Toyosi

BY ZAYD IBN ISAH
Ameerah Sufyan stirred up a hornet’s nest with her tweet on 14th July 2022 at exactly 13:16 pm. Ameerah Sufyan is a 300 level student of Guidance and Counseling in the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

She alerted the general public that some armed men wearing Police Uniforms have kidnapped her and 17 others in a sting operation from different parts of Abuja. She didn’t stop there. She went further to reveal the tribe of the kidnappers and the places they were taking them to. “They’re 4 Yoruba and 2 Fulani men. They divided us up an hour ago. We’re 7 here. The other vehicle they said they will reach Ilorin and ours will reach Ibadan or Ikeja as they said”. She wrote.

No Nigerian, young or old would strain credulity considering the fact that kidnapping is fast becoming an intractable problem in the country. Even those like my senior friend and mentor, Olusegun Adeniyi (Spokesman to late President Yar’adua and Chairman ThisDay Newspaper) that felt something did not add up in her kidnap story could not voice out their dissenting opinion for fear of being convicted for lack of empathy in the court of public opinion. You need to have a skin as thick as the whale shark to ask probing questions on social media for a case as sensitive as kidnapping…

Few minutes after Ameerah dropped the controversial SOS message, Nigerians on social media started calling on security agencies to go the whole hog and rescue Ameerah and others from the hands of the kidnappers.

The Police swung into action and found Ameerah within 24 hours. Nigerians were happy that Ameerah was found hale and hearty, but they were exasperated that she was not found in a kidnapper’s den as the Police debunked claims of her kidnap and that of 17 others.

Many Nigerians are calling for her head following the revelation by the Police that she faked her kidnap.

Some Nigerians like me are still wondering what Ameerah set out to achieve with her action on social media. Did she raise the false alarm for clout-clasing to gain more followers on Twitter and other social media platforms and become an influencer? Or she followed the footsteps of others who have tread the path of willfully throwing the nation into commotion? But, who in his or her ‘compos mentis’ will raise a fall alarm of being kidnapped in today’s Nigeria? Did Ameerah put the mental health of the over 200 million Nigerians into consideration when she was composing that message? Or she did it to rubbish government’s claim of fighting insecurity as a result of the lingering ASUU strike? Was her action caused by idleness? These are mind-boggling questions begging for answers while Police investigation is still ongoing to unravel the circumstances surrounding her sudden disappearance from home.

Ameerah could have left home quietly without raising dust thereby throwing her family’s name up for public ridicule. She grew up in a strict Muslim home in Abuja. Her father is a respected religious cleric. Though not known in the country like other religious clerics like Gumi and Jafar Jafar (of blessed memory) until his daughter brought him to limelight for the wrong reason.

Ameerah owe the country an explanation, if not for anything, just to put paid to the speculations on social media. Prominent among the speculations is that, she spinned the kidnap yarn to escape force marriage. Whatever the case maybe, she committed a faux pas by raising false alarm just to escape from being married to someone her heart does not desire.

As a student of Guidance and Counseling who would have graduated this year barring incessant ASUU strikes, Ameerah should have known the effect of her action on her fellow citizens. She may know, but decided not to give a hoot, damning the consequences…

Ameerah is not the first person to throw the country into commotion with force SOS message on social media. In April this year, a young lady raised an alarm on Twitter that some guys have kidnapped and raped her. She went as far as dropping their location and the phone number of her abductors on social media. Trust Nigerians, they bombarded the line with calls, threats and insults that she was forced to come out and debunk her claim and pleaded with the general public to stop calling the numbers, that she was just catching cruise.

Police traced the address of the house she shared on social media and arrested the guys. It later turned out that 20-year old Toyosi’s alleged kidnapers were her regular customers. She frequents their house for pleasure. But, luck ran out of her on that fateful day and the young guys held her hostage, promising not to let her leave until she do their bidding. She threatened to raise alarm on social media, they called her bluff and she thought them the lesson of their lives. Toyosi was charged to court for the offense of false alarm while the guys were charged for wrongful restraint.

Nigerians are beginning to abuse the privileges of social media. Social media, if well used can make a country and if badly used can set a nation ablaze.

Ameerah and her ilks are why young and brilliant Doctor Chinelo was accused of clout-chasing when she made a distress tweet in an ill-fated train attack along Abuja -Kaduna road that claimed her life and the lives of other Nigerians.

Giving false information or raising a false alarm is a heinous crime. It falls under the category of a strict liability offense. This means that people like Toyosi and Ameerah who are knowing, reckless or wilful in giving misleading information would be committing an offense, it doesn’t matter whether you are ignorant or not or had cause to believe that the information you gave is true or false.

The country is currently battling security issues and our security personnel are doing their possible best to restore law and order. It is ideal that every citizen of the country should assist the relevant security agencies with useful information to help bring our common enemies to book and desist from insensitive actions that will further complicate issues.

Ameerah should face the full wrath of the law if she is guilty of false alarm to serve as deterrent to others.

Zayd Ibn Isah writes from Abuja. He can be reached via [email protected].