Police deny killing of 21 soldiers by gunmen in Anambra

Nigerian Police

The Anambra State Police Command has dismissed the claims that 21 soldiers were killed by gunmen in the state.

There have been reports across social media since Tuesday saying that 21 soldiers who were on their way to Enugu State were rounded up and killed in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Monday evening.

But while reacting to the report in a statement on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, dismissed the claims, describing it as “misleading”, “unfounded” and “false”.

The statement read, “The Anambra State Police Command is aware of a misleading, unfounded, and false report titled, ‘Gunmen kill 21 soldiers in Anambra’, recently peddled by some online media and national dailies.

“The Command wishes to state that the report is untrue, a product of fiction, and the handiwork of mischief-makers.

“Also, the Command, in dismay at the news, has observed that the said hospital mentioned in the report, where the corpses of the soldiers are allegedly kept, does not exist in Awka, the state capital.

“Further inquiries were made by the Command, showing that there is no record of such an incident or otherwise, but deliberate acts by unscrupulous elements are to cause tension in the state.”

Ikenga added that the Command should not hesitate to invoke relevant cyber laws on persons found wanting in this regard.

“However, the Command urges the public to disregard the report,” he added.