Nigerians are virtually at war on social media over the veracity of a video clip trending in the social media space depicting Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris struggling to read a prepared speech at a police event in Kano. Political Economist had earlier reported that the video appeared doctored to spite the IGP.

In the said video, Mr Idris who has a degree in Agricultural Science as well as law was projected as incapable of pronouncing some words and in most cases repeating words and lines like someone under the influence. It appeared the original speech in which the IGP may have committed a minor blooper was gravely manipulated using speech software and allied ICT tools and skills which are common these days.

While some Nigerians have risen in defence of the IGP, others insist that the video reflects the man and was not doctored in any way. Below are some of the fireworks of debate trending on social media.

On Wale Rayners wrote: “Listed below are proofs that the video was transmitted raw and NOT doctored:

1. The voice was the exact Voice of the current IGP.
2. He accepted the fact that he made mistakes and he was apologizing along with his speech.
3. His personal aide came out to render a little assistance to prevent the situation from escalating.
4. The members of the audience were caught on camera laughing and murmuring during the show of shame.
5. Despite the rate at which the video has being trending on all social media platforms since yesterday, The IGP has not issued any disclaimer. (Ordinarily we would have heard “Our attention has been drawn to a doctored video circulating on social media purported to be that of the IGP”). But there is absolute silence from the affected authority.
6. To those that claimed the video was not real, nobody has ever come out with the original version of the video in support of the IGP, or to substantiate their assertion.

We are set to always puncture APC propaganda.

Another unnamed respondent writing in defence of the IGP wrote: “This is the work of criminals. No criminal will be happy with IGP Idris because he is exposing them”.

One Suleiman Bello wrote: “This video is not real. Those suggesting it is real are the ones that actually need their brain examined.”

A certain Muhammad AbdulSalam wrote: “I was a witness to Idris show of shame…IG suffered memory loss for about 15 minutes…some of his aides said it was a spiritual attack..”