Nigerians have reacted to the news of alleged kidnap involving one Ameerah and 16 others making rounds on social media.
A lady identified as @Ameerah_sufyan on social media had tweeted yesterday by 1:16pm saying that she and over a dozen others were abducted at gunpoint, adding that she sent a broadcast message of her location to her Whatsapp contacts.
She tweeted, “Please whoever has my whatsapp number I sent a broadcast message of my location, we were abducted at gun point by PPL with police office uniform and a van from our houses from different parts of Abuja, we are 17 including 3 pregnant women and two little kids, they didn’t see my phone.”
https://twitter.com/Ameerah_sufyan/status/1536684086181384192
A few hours later she tweeted, “They’re 4 Yoruba and two Fulani men. They divided us up an hour ago we’re 7 here The other vehicle they said they will reach Ilorin and ours will reach Ibadan or Ikeja as they said.”
https://twitter.com/Ameerah_sufyan/status/1536719202723237890
As of the time of this report, the victims’ whereabouts remain unknown, thus stirring reactions from Nigerians, especially on social media.
What Nigerians are saying
- Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore said, “The Nigerian police should ensure that you’re all rescued. Governance has become despicable, how on earth are citizens abducted and driven for hours without police detecting the criminals? If this was a small protest against the bad regime of Buhari suddenly they’ll become active!
- Comedian @mrMacaroni wrote, “Yesterday, Ameerah sent a distress Tweet that she and 16 others including 3 pregnant women and two little kids were abducted at gunpoint by people in police uniforms in Abuja! I call on The President and all security agents in Nigeria!! Please Find Them!!!!”
- Social media influencer, @drpenking said, “Ameerah ticked all the safety boxes! Don’t struggle with your abductors, She didn’t. Hide your phone, She hid. Share your location with family, She even shared it with the whole Nigeria. It’s the duty of the Nigeria police to secure her safe release”
- @-fateehu tweeted, “This kidnapping of a thing is getting out of hand. No one is safe in this country. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ameerah and other victims that are held captive, may the Almighty God protect them and reunite them with their families in good health.”
What the Police is saying
The Nigeria Police Force FCT Command with the handle @policeng_fct on Twitter wrote, “investigation is in progress, we thank everyone for the many helpful information coming from all our quarters and urge all to exercise calm and patience as we get to the root of this.
- In its subsequent messages, it wrote, “Our message might just be reaching the social media space but If a thousand action has been taken on locating her, our last comment on her post would probably be the 999th. While physical action has since been deployed, this is just to assure everyone that we are on it.”
- “There’s so much information embedded in her ability to access or not to access her DM. So much was said in few lines. So much more than “check your DM”
- “Maybe there’s one man behind the keys but thousands are on the street to find them.
- “We appreciate hundreds of well-meaning Nigerians furnishings us with useful information on our TL and DM. We want to assure you once again that we are on it.”
- “We urge the members of the public to keep hope alive and keep assisting the Police in any way they can even as we remain on top of the situation.”
Kidnappings have become a rampant crime in Nigeria in the last few years with the government and security agencies unable to curb the surge.
