The government of Enugu State has demolished another property linked to kidnapping activities in the state.
It warned house owners that it would not entertain any excuse in enforcing relevant laws mandating agencies to pull down any property linked to such evil.
Speaking to newsmen at the site, the chairman, Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, Hon. Uche Anya, said the mansion located at Amaebo Owelli Autonomous Community in Awgu local government area was being used for keeping victims of kidnapping.
He stated that the video of a male kidnap victim who had several AK-47 rifles pointed at his head in May 2024 was recorded in the same building, and security agencies were able to track the building, rescuing the victim, while also apprehending most of the criminals and recovering arms and ammunition from them.
“What you see here today is the continuation of the war of the Enugu State government against all manner of criminality. Today, we are here to take down a kidnappers’ den. The property you see us taking down right now is a place where horrendous criminal activities happened.
“For instance, on 25th of May 2024, some deadly kidnappers abducted a man in Enugu, brought him here, stripped him bare, even naked to his red boxers, bound him, pointed guns at him, and forced him to start talking to his family to request for money. They posted that video to his relatives.
“They held him down, but to the glory of God and the commitment of Governor Mbah, who is giving his all to security, the government and security agencies, through our state-of-the-art security system, were able to see what was happening in this rural community.
“Security agencies moved to the place. Every other person was arrested, but the kingpin escaped to Ebonyi. We tracked him to Ebonyi, and he escaped to Lagos where the Enugu State government and the security agencies caught up with him,” he said.
“The state government does not want anything that will remind us of the deadly criminality. We just want to put it out of our minds. We do not need to acquire a criminal’s property to use it to serve the public. We bring it down and we do our own thing. We do not want to profit from their criminality,” he added.
