The police authorities in Enugu State have debunked a video clip currently in circulation, alleging that a part of the state is not safe due to a series of kidnappings.
There have been reported cases of kidnapping in the past week despite having the manning of security checkpoints as well as a mobile police base.
As a result, a video resurfaced showing a number of persons running for safety in a bush with accompanying gunshots, with a caption that the event happened along the road during one of the kidnap incidents.
But in a statement on Sunday, the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, said the scene the video displayed did not happen in Nigeria, let alone Enugu State.
“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,” Ndukwe said.
“As a matter of fact, forensic analysis of the video indicates that it did not happen anywhere in the country, let alone in 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 warned 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 an 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’.
The police authorities also urged Enugu residents 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.