NFF Slams Fake News on Plumptre, Warns Against Social Media Impersonation
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has strongly condemned the spread of fake news involving Super Falcons defender Ashley Plumptre, appealing to journalists and media outlets to verify stories before publishing or sharing them.
The federation’s latest warning follows a fabricated report circulated on Facebook claiming Plumptre was lamenting her exclusion from Nigeria’s squad for the upcoming Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco.
NFF Director of Competitions, Ruth David, dismissed the claims as baseless.
‘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,’ she explained.
David further clarified that no official squad list has yet been submitted for the Women’s AFCON. She noted that similar false reports had previously targeted other Super Falcons players, including Esther Okoronkwo and Asisat Oshoala, both of whom were wrongly linked to retirement or exclusion stories.
Plumptre herself responded to the latest impersonation attempt, writing: ‘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.’
The NFF reiterated its appeal to media owners, journalists, and the public to double-check information before sharing, stressing that the rise of fake news poses a serious threat to credibility and integrity in sports reporting.
