Google Deletes Crowwe App from Play Store

Misbar’s investigation into the claim found the circulating true. The Crowwe app has indeed been removed from the Google Play Store. A search on the play store returned the following results below as at 06:01 pm, WAT on Monday, 14th June 2021, verifying the claim.

Following FG’s suspension of Twitter’s operation in Nigeria about a week ago, Adamu Garba had promptly taken to Twitter to express his delight as he tweeted, saying the small Crowwe has defeated the giant Twitter in Nigeria. He had also likened the experience to the story of David and Goliath being re-enacted. For him, Twitter’s suspension is a plus for his Crowwe App.

Adamu Garba has never hesitated to show his disgust and hatred for Twitter. Following the breakout of the EndSARS campaign last year, he had instituted a $1 billion lawsuit against Twitter and its CEO, Jack Dorsey, over what he described as the platform’s role in the crisis, which engulfed the entire nation. He later withdrew the suit, stating that it had achieved its goal. 

He openly expressed his delight at Twitter’s suspension during an interview he had on Channels TV. Following the suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria, he felt it was an opportunity to spread the tentacles of his Crowwe app. 

He subsequently urged Nigerians to join Crowwe, which is described as an instant messaging and financial transaction app that comes with an easy-to-activate digital wallet that helps users transfer and receives money while chatting with loved ones. Instead, many who had always seen him as one of Buhari’s staunch supporters who never saw anything wrong in the various policies and stance of the government on significant issues affecting Nigerians made efforts to see that the app is deleted from the play stores.

Many noticed some things wrong with the app, including the fact that its privacy policy statement was plagiarized. It was lifted word for word from Spotify along with a poorly designed UI. Thus, they went ahead to give scathing reviews of the app.

One of such review reads, ‘’ The owner of this app is a terrorist in Nigeria who wants to get everyone’s information for himself and his godfathers (the government), so they can keep killing and kidnapping them, not to forget too that the owner just like his godfathers are planning on Islamizing Nigeria and making sure everyone bows down to Islam or gets killed. Hence, they had to connive together and ban Twitter in Nigeria to make sure this app of his has more attention. The president of Nigeria is with him in this, and you can research if Twitter.’’

This no doubt led to the action taken by Google.

According to Punch, Adamu Garba claims he asked Google to bring down the app to work on the code. However, a check on Google's Play Console help shows that one does not necessarily need to bring down an app before updating its source code.