The Nigeria Police ‘Rescue Me App’ has received over 10,000 fake emergency alerts in four days.
This is according to the Acting Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a tweet via his Twitter handle on Wednesday.
The Rescue Me App was launched by the police to help citizens in distress to report crimes in their neighbourhoods, with direct access to police helplines.
In his tweet, Adejobi noted that the fake emergency alerts by some citizens prank testing the service had resulted in heavy traffic on the system.
He urged Nigerians to only use the service when in genuine need for the police to be able to help those who are in an emergency.
The FPRO also reaffirmed the app’s usefulness while calling for citizens’ cooperation with the police.
“On our NPF Rescue Me App, we want to urge Nigerians to please stop fake alerts. These are causing more harm to the system and jeopardising it. In the last four days, we have received more than 10,122 fake alerts.
“And that’s why we have heavy traffic on the system, thereby affecting the genuine callers. We have more than 5000 pending or awaiting OTP to proceed on the app; it’s due to this unnecessary heavy traffic on the system.
“We are sure the app is good, efficient and helpful; that’s why we initiated it to improve our security network. Pls, cooperate with us on this,” Adejobi stated.
Apart from crime reportage, the Rescue Me App also has other functions such as requesting an ambulance, emergency contact feature, reporting a police officer, and navigation.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
