‘Not In Nigeria’- Police Debunk Viral Video Of Kidnap, Admit Abductions In Enugu

The Enugu State Police Command, Sunday, described the trending viral video allegedly portraying a kidnap episode along Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road as fake.

THE WHISTLER reported that the road had witnessed recurring kidnap cases in the past week despite having over ten security checkpoints as well as a mobile police base.

A video portraying a number of persons running for safety in a bush with accompanying gunshots had emanated, with a caption that the event happened along the road during one of the kidnap incidents.

The video bore several captions, including ‘Enugu-Ugwuogo is not safe now… Yesterday, hoodlums kidnapped three times yesterday. The first was by 12pm, 2pm and 6pm’; and ‘kidnappers conduct marathon operations at Nsukka-Ugwuogo-Nike-Enugu Road’.

The state police command, however, said the scene the video displayed did not happen in Nigeria, let alone Enugu State.

The command’s public relations officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, stated that, “The video, with the accompanying message and the news publications, is not only untrue, but highly unfounded and misleading. This is because there was no such serial or repeated incident of kidnapping on the same day as reported, or shooting and chaotic incident as relayed in the video at the mentioned location or any other part of the state.

“As a matter of fact, forensic analysis of the video indicates that it did not happen anywhere in the country, let alone Enugu State. In the same vein, the command sees the unverified and unfounded report of repeated kidnapping incidents on the same day as a misleading and mischievous act of misinformation, aimed at creating panic in the state.”

The state police command, however, acknowledged that there were abduction cases along the road recently, adding that necessary measures were being put in place to avert it.

Ndukwe cautioned against ‘sensationalizing and blowing the situation out of proportion’, adding that such ‘video clip and the publication will never be in the best interest of the security and safety of the state and her people’.

In a similar vein, the state commissioner of police, CP Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the massive deployment of the command’s policing resources to the said location and other of such locations to sustain onslaught against criminal elements.

While reiterating ‘the unwavering commitment of the command to contain such acts of crimes and criminality in the state and to bring their perpetrators to book’, CP Ammani enjoined citizens of the state, especially those of locations where acts of abduction/kidnapping and other criminality are perpetrated, ‘to assist the command with credible information and intelligence required to tackle the situations headlong’.

Citizens were told to report such information to the nearest police station or by calling the command’s emergency hotlines on 08032003702, 08075380883, 08086671202 or 08098880172, or send email to [email protected].