The Osun State Police Command has dismissed a viral video circulating on social media which purportedly showed police officers fleeing from a drone, describing the claim as misleading and false.
The command said the footage had nothing to do with an actual police operation, explaining that it was taken from a Yoruba movie production titled Omine fun Omine Part 2.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Abiodun Ojelabi, disclosed this in a statement issued to journalists in Osogbo on Wednesday.
According to Ojelabi, the movie was filmed in May, with a police patrol vehicle featuring in one of the scenes.
He explained that a bystander who was not part of the production crew recorded the scene and subsequently circulated it with a false description suggesting that serving police officers were running away from a drone.
The command rejected the interpretation, saying there was no basis for portraying the footage as evidence of officers fleeing from an aerial surveillance device.
“The command rejects any narrative that serving officers ran away from a drone,” Ojelabi said.
The police spokesperson also criticised the circulation of what he described as out-of-context footage, warning that such content could damage the reputation of the Nigeria Police Force and mislead members of the public.
He stressed that footage should be properly verified before being presented as evidence of a security incident, particularly when such reports could have wider implications for public confidence in security agencies.
Ojelabi specifically appealed to media organisations and other platforms that published the video with the disputed caption to correct the information and retract the claim.
He said investigative reporting required proper verification before video clips were given a national or international interpretation.
The police spokesman further warned against attempts to ridicule or discredit security personnel through misleading captions and unverified social media content.
The development comes amid the rapid spread of security-related videos and claims on social media, where old or unrelated footage is sometimes presented as evidence of current events.
The Osun Command urged members of the public to exercise caution when sharing such material and to verify the source and circumstances surrounding videos before drawing conclusions.
The command maintained that the viral footage in question was a scene from a film production and not evidence of police officers fleeing from a drone.
