No Student, Teacher Kidnapped In Akwa Ibom — Police

The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has denied an alleged attack and abduction of four students and some teachers of Mary Hanney Secondary School (NHSS) at the coastal community of Oron local government area of the state by insurgents.

A social media influencer had alerted residents of the infiltration of Boko Haram insurgents down South, with several of them arriving Akwa Ibom through the waterways of some riverine LGAs.

But the Commissioner of Police (CP), Baba Azare, in a swift response activated security platforms across the 31 LGAs, and followed with security meeting with traditional rulers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), youths leaders, community stakeholders and sister security agencies at the Ikot Akpanabia, Uyo, state headquarters.

He stressed the need to enhance effective policing of the rural areas and other locations in the state to fish out criminal elements, given the prevailing tension occasioned by the festering security challenges in the country.

However, residents of the state were shocked to the marrows following alert on Friday that the mission school in the riverine LGA of Oron, had been attack with four students kidnapped along with teachers, while others have been killed.

“Serious problem at Oron right now. Students and teachers kidnapped, some are killed. Kidnappers abducted four students at Mary Hanney Secondary School, Oron, parents should check on their kids,” the messages of alarm which sent shivers down the spines of some distraught parents, and made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, read.

However, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Timfon John, dismissed the alarm as a piece of fake news, and appealed to the public not to panic.

She noted that the unfounded rumours were being perpetrated by mischief – makers, cashing in on the prevailing security situation in the country to create, as well as intstil fear in the populace.

The PPRO, therefore, warned the perpetrators of such propaganda to desist forthwith, as the long arms of the law would not spare any culpable individual in the habit of creating fear in the name of social media contents.

“People should go about their normal businesses as the so called school attack in Oron LGA, only existed in the imaginations of the purveyors for reasons best known to them,” she assured.