The Federal Government on Wednesday refuted report carried by some media on the abduction of 60 women in Damboa, Borno.
Mr Mike Omeri, the Coordinator, National Information Centre, made the denial at a news conference in Abuja.
He said that the claim in several media reports about the abduction of 60 women could not be verified.
“We hereby wish to state that based on available facts before us there was no abduction of 60 persons in Borno.
“We have checked everywhere and no information to verify the claim, our findings indicate that nothing on the ground to prove any act of abduction.
“I have a lot of reports that are not just true but people go out to reel out figures.
“I am going to protest to some media houses by writing a protest letter because they are not giving the right information, what they do is worrisome,” Omeri said.
Omeri said that Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno confirmed that there were no sufficient facts on the alleged abduction of 60 women.
“Who can say he carried out a head count of the women during the mayhem,” he asked.
He advised Nigerians to desist from playing with figures of persons abducted.
According to him, this reinforces the need for media organizations to always refer to the centre before going to press.
He added that any other contrary action would be deemed as a deliberate attempt to create confusion and fear among the public.
Commenting on the fate of the 486 persons traveling to Port Harcourt in convoy of 35 buses and were intercepted in Abia, Omeri said 144 of the number had been released.
He said that the rest were still being kept and had been making useful information having been interrogated, adding that the security agencies were on the trail of their sponsor.
“Those interrogated have mentioned names of individuals and the security agencies are on their trail,” Omeri said.
He said that one of the suspects connected with the packaging of the trip had been named and investigations were on to unravel issues involved in the incident.
