Police dismiss report on Evans vanishing from custody

*Nigerians unhappy media, police playing on their sensibilities

The Nigeria Police Force says suspected kidnap kingpin, Chukwuduneme Onwuamadike, alias Evans is still in its custody contrary to some media reports.

The Force Spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, according to agency report in Abuja on Saturday, said that Evans was in police custody hale and hearty.

“Evans is still in police custody; he is hale and healthy and he has been assisting the police further in their investigation.”

Moshood described those peddling the rumour as mischief makers who were only out to tarnish the image of the Nigerian police.

“The people are just mischievous. Evans did not vanish, Evans is still in police custody and we are making progress in the investigation,” he said.

He said that the police has a warrant from the court to keep him for three months.

It would be recalled that Evans was arrested on June 10 in Lagos by members of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

Few days to his report, some disheartening reports started feeding into the airspace about some elements launching a social media campaigns for the release of the self confessed criminal gang leader, which sparked suspicion when the Lagos State Police raised an alarm that police was under pressure to release him about three days after.

The news of Evans vanishing laundered in some major Nigerian print media on Saturday further fueled anxiety on the part of the public as to what could have been going on.

One respondent told The DEFENDER, “The uncomfortable news started with some evil souls calling for the release of Evans followed by the police in Lagos raising alarm that it was under pressure to release him; by who?  And if the police could be under pressure to release a criminal who voluntarily confessed and admitted to his crime of kidnap and it failed to arrest those pressuring it and present their identity to the public, then where is the confidence in the police?

“The police should have stopped telling us the story of being under pressure because if you are under pressure it means you know who are pressurizing you and all you need to do is arrest them and let Nigerians who you claim to be serving know them.  That was while that story of Evans vanishing from police custody Saturday morning was heavy enough to discredit the entire effort of the police.  We all know that they have done a good job by arresting him.  We also know that they needed not be distracted in the course of their investigations to get to the root of Evans gangsterism and activities.  We also have confidence in the police to the point at which they outsmarted Evans and his lawyers who went to court to sue them to either release him or charge him to court at a time investigations had not concluded.

“But we started to lose confidence at a point when we now begin to hear that Evans had vanished, which had happened before when Boko Haram suspect then Kabiru Sokoto escaped from amidst tight security mounted by police in Abuja area.

“Look we Nigerians are tired of media playing on our sensibilities to sell their papers.  We are tired of hearing bad, unprogressive news about our effort to move forward as a nation and people.  The police is the foremost security organization in this country.  If you cannot arrest whoever is peddling such rumour, it means we still have a long way to go in this country talking of moving forward because more misinformation will come and police too will have more energy to expend unnecessarily in denouncing such unethical rumours.  Evans must not escape justice.  Period!” He said.