By Adadareporters
The trending viral video allegedly portraying a kidnap episode along Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road is fake, the state police command said on Sunday.
The video is reported to be a scene of one of the alleged kidnap incidents along the road. It was reported that at least three kidnap operations had been carried out along the road, which has over ten checkpoints, comprising police and the military.
The clarification on the video was contained in a statement by the state police command’s public relations officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe.
Ndukwe stated that, “The Enugu State Police Command is in receipt of a viral video clip depicting gunshots and people running in a forest, with the accompanying message that ‘Enugu-Ugwogo is not safe now… Yesterday, hoodlums kidnapped three times yesterday. The first was by 12pm, 2pm and 6pm’.
“This was similarly published in some news blogs and webpages with the title: ‘kidnappers conduct marathon operations at Nsukka-Ugwogo-Nike-Enugu Road’.
“The command, therefore, wishes to state categorically 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 the recent reoccurrence of acts of abduction/kidnapping at some locations on the said road, but advised against ‘sensationalizing and blowing the situation out of proportion’. Ndukwe cautioned 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’.
Meanwhile, 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.
He reiterated, in the statement, ‘the unwavering commitment of the command to contain such acts of crimes and criminality in the state and to bring their perpetrators to book’.
The CP 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’.
He urged them 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 infoenugupolice@gmail.com.
