A page called ‘Ciidanka Police Somaliland‘ carrying the photo of the Somaliland Police Commander, Brigadier General Abdullahi Fadal Iman, has of recent been posting pictures and anecdotes relating to the Somaliland police force.
The page uses a tone that leads the reader to believe that it is none other than the Commander writing the words, conveying the messages. That coupled with the photo used leaves one in little doubt that it is, in fact, the general’s own page. Nothing is amiss on first glance. That is on first glance.
But then, one notices the mistakes.
The latest pictures posted, fort example, purport to shipments of military hardware arriving at Berbera port. Most of the pictures posted are those of the UAE military consignment that arrived in Mogadishu and Kismayo a while ago for Jubaland. The minaret in the background betrays the location.
Another is of armoured cars being loaded – not unloaded – some place other than Berbera. A truck is seen climbing up the ramp to the hold. One picture that the impostor removed quite hastily of his page was of thousands of WWII-like military jeeps lined in rows in a military surplus yard some place that only God knows where – a picture that is doubtlessly pulled out from the Internet.
None of them are true.
To formally caution viewers of this form of cyber crime, the Police Commander himself, released a statement to the press distancing himself from the said page.
“I once more state that I have no page on Facebook as I clarified before. Any matter or images posted on that page cannot be, therefore, linked to me in person or to the Somaliland police force,” General Fadal said.
