Police caution media against ‘baseless’ reports on kidnappings

The Kaduna State Police Command on Tuesday advised the media against creating unnecessary panic in reporting unverified stories of kidnappings and other crimes in the state.

The command gave the advice in a statement issued by its Public Relation Officer, DSP Yakubu Sabo in Kaduna.

The police was reacting to Monday’s media reports in which 13 people were allegedly kidnapped along Abuja-Kaduna highway.

“The Command wishes to debunk the story as a misrepresentation of facts to create panic in the minds of the public who ply the road for their daily lawful activities.

“The command wishes to put the record straight that, on Sept 23 at about 0130hrs, some armed men in military uniform forcefully entered some houses at the outskirts of Dutse village in Chikun L.G.A of Kaduna State and in the process, abducted six people and took them to unknown destination.

“However, one of the victims named Umar Abbas, a 32-year-old, later managed to escape from his captors and reported the incident to the command today (Tuesday).

“The command wants to state categorically that, the incident neither involved travellers along Abuja road, nor recorded the figure falsely reported by such media.”

It noted with concerns, what it terms as deliberate misrepresentation including inaccurate figures of the victims and location of incident in the alleged media reports.

“Such false reports will only increase fear among road users,” the police stressed.

According to the statement, operatives of the command’s anti-kidnapping and SARS units have been on the track of the kidnappers with a view to rescue the five victims and arrest the perpetrators.

The command added that it was disturbed by the incident and was doing everything possible to end such attacks.

“The Command in its effort to reduce criminal activities, calls on the good people of Kaduna State to continue to support the Police with prompt and useful information about such incidents to enable the command to proactively respond timely,” the statement said.