Immediately after the publication of the surveillance image of one of the alleged coupist, Amadu Koita, by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, on Wednesday, capturing the accused alongside a dismissed superintendent Kabba Dumbuya during the November 26 attack, alot of controversies were raised by several SierraLeoneans expressing their doubts over the authenticity of the image.
The image, bearing the timestamp of 8:29:07 dated November 26,2023 aimed to identify the suspect, Amadu Koita, who is in Police detention.
Within a twinkle of an eye of the publication of the image, some SierraLeoneans rushed to social media to give their own perspectives about the surveillance image. There were various versions of the image. Some described it as a make-up image, while others were defending it as a real image.
Some even pointed out visible inconsistencies in the image, such as haircut between the arrested photo and the surveillance image while others have questioned the validity of the government claims, given the absence of the CCTV cameras in a critical location and the unique quality of the image provided. The skepticism degenerated to the point that some were even asking where did the Government the surveillance image from when the authorities have asserted there were no CCTV camera in military armoury and other strategic locations in Freetown.
Other school of thought have accused the Government for manipulating the photograph of the suspects and linked him to the coup and demanded for the full CCTV footages to ascertain the veracity of the image.
Others have carried out I-very research to fact-check the image, but their research tools had been unable to fact-check the image as true or false. A Seasoned Fact-checker who preferred to remain anonymous for obvious reasons spent the rest of his day to verify the image and according to his findings, the image is difficult to verify because it may have not been uploaded on known internet.
During his i-verify research, he said his fact-checking tool is taking him somewhere else in the internet with a profile date time of the image as “2018:03:20:09:14:29, suggesting the image may have been initially taken in March 2018.
In the midst of this growing skeptism, the Ministry of Information and Civic Education is yet to respond neither making any statement.
In order to save the public from skepticism, the Director of Communications, Michael Berewa pointed out to specific details in the CCTV Footage. He emphasised that “I don’t have a background in imaging forensic, but the CCTV footage on the right clearly shows he is wearing a black do-rag on his head…(Zoom in and see)” and strongly criticized the allegations of photo shopping of the image.
As the controversy intensifies, SierraLeoneans are still anxious for clarity in the surveillance image to clear the doubt which has created a recipe to undermine the credibility of the investigation.
