Nigeria’s Police has disclosed that it received at least 10,122 fake alerts in four days on its newly developed citizens app, ‘Rescue Me’.
Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, stated this via his Twitter handle on Thursday.
The force had last year introduced the software, ‘rescue me app,’ to aid the timely arrival of officers at crime scenes anywhere in Nigeria, noting that the app was developed to tackle insecurity through technology.
The application was designed to improve the response time of police officers to emergency situations in real time.
It uses internet services and is global position satellite (GPS)-based.
The police, however, lamented the misuse of the app by Nigerians, stating that raising false alarms could jeopardise rescue efforts for genuine reports.
“On our NPF Rescue Me App, we want to urge Nigerians to please stop fake alerts. These are causing more harm to the system and jeopardise it. In the last four days, we have received more than 10,122 fake alerts.
“And that’s why we have heavy traffic on the system, thereby affecting the genuine callers. We have more than 5,000 pending or awaiting OTP to proceed on the app; it’s due to this unnecessary heavy traffic on the system. We are sure the app is good, efficient and helpful;
The ‘rescue me app’ was designed for effective reporting of emergencies, criminal activities and professional misconducts of police officers to ensure rapid and immediate response by operatives of the force.
It was recently improved to redefine security and personalise policing by enabling android and ios users to download the app from the various app stores.
Users are expected to register with their details and have access to a variety of features including emergency services, crime reporting, navigation and ambulance services.