THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Super Falcons defender Ashley Plumptre have appealed to the media and persons in the public space to consistently make the effort to verify news items they see on social media or anywhere before spreading such news.
This appeal comes against the background of a fake news item today, propagated by an internet scammer who imagined and published on Facebook a report that Plumptre was lamenting her exclusion from the Super Falcons squad ‘selected’ to defend the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) title in Morocco from July 25 to August 16.
The impersonator wrote that Plumptre had been dropped because she had refused to bribe some team officials.
Unfortunately, some news outlets (not Naija Times) reported the claim, attributing it to Plumptre without verifying if it was indeed the Saudi Arabia-based defender.
Meanwhile, the Super Falcons squad for the tournament will not be made public until mid-July.
NFF’s Director of Competitions, Ruth David, cleared the air on the news item, saying: “This is totally false. Last year, Ashley Plumptre made a video in which she categorically said that she is NOT on Facebook; that some fellows are impersonating her and that she has tried several times to bring down the page without success.
“Nothing has changed about her absence from Facebook; the player is not on Facebook and nobody should believe anything that emanates from the cloned account.
“The other issue is that the Coach has not submitted any list of players for the Women’s AFCON, so the scamster got it all wrong. The same scamster was at work some weeks ago stating that Esther Okoronkwo (a Super Falcons striker) made the same claims, when in fact the player was not invited for the Senegal friendly matches simply because she was nursing an injury.
“We recall that some time ago, there was a report that Asisat Oshoala (a Super Falcons striker) said she had retired from international football, which was patently false.
“We appeal to well-meaning individuals to double-check whatever news item they see anywhere before escalating the same to other spaces.
“The incidence of fake news has become overwhelming and it is important that media owners and media workers consistently verify what they push out there for the sake of their own integrity and credibility.”
Plumptre herself debunked the news item, writing on her authentic social media accounts: “Awful false accounts. I’ve posted on my IG and X for people to report.
“They are using my identity and scamming people. I’m currently contacting someone in Saudi (Arabia) to help me take these accounts down because this has been happening for well over a year now.”
