By Blessing Ekpo

A trending hashtag #FindHinyUmoren on Twitter Nigeria in the last couple of days with over 100,000 tweets has sparked a lot of concerns over a missing girl,  Iniobong Umoren, who had gone job-hunting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

On the 27th of April, 2021 at 12:24 pm, Iniobong Umoren, a young graduate of the University of Uyo had dropped a tweet seeking a job with her handle @HinyHumoren, saying “#AkwaIbomTwitter please I'm really in need of a job, something to do to keep mind and soul together while contributing dutifully to the organization. My location is Uyo, I'm creative, really good at thinking critically, and most importantly a fast learner. CV available on request.” and had got many replies in that regard.

Amongst other replies, were 5 offers that stood distinctively out which included persons with these handles, @Miraclepapaa, @nsiman, @iniobong-, @MeetEbenezer and @n_uwem,

Following the unfolding of events, she was allegedly invited by a young man, Uduak Frank Akpan, with the Twitter handle @Miraclepapa, who as gathered from his social media activity, deals in Real Estate, poultry and Auto and lives around Ibiaku junction,  whose digital footprint suggests that he is a serial fraudster and a psychopath

It is gathered that Iniobong Umoren was invited for an interview on the 29th of April,2021 by Mr. Uduak Frank Akpan at about 3:30 pm, giving directions leading to Airport road, on her way there, she had left some trail of her whereabout using the Whatsapp platform at 4:06 pm after sending a voice note of  1sec to her friend Umoh Uduak @UmohUduak1 who later called her and heard her screaming.

Immediately after this, her friend took to Twitter, with the tweet, “Y'all my friend @HinyHumoren is in trouble and she needs our help. I'm currently in Lagos and I can't help than to put this out there. Earlier today she told me she was going for a job interview at airport road which is quite far from her house. To cut everything short, she sent me a 1sec audio record on WhatsApp and I had to call her back to know if she wanted to say something to me but immediately I called her I heard her screaming. Someone, please help her out."

As at the time, she said efforts by the family to report the incident at the police station met a brick wall as the police stated that the family has to wait for 48 hours before filing a report for a missing person.

The suspect's accomplice, Emem-Obong Emmanuel Edem has also tried deleting his response to Umoren's tweets and deactivating his Twitter account.Meanwhile, the suspected kidnapper, Frank Akpan, took to his Facebook page to debunk the allegation without further proof of his innocence.

His post read, "Please I am not holding her hostage nor do I know anything about her whereabouts. My phone has been off because I've been getting threatening messages due to the misunderstanding.”

However, in the early hours of today May 1st, 2021,  Mr. Uduak Frank Akpan has been arrested by the Nigerian Police force in Akwa-Ibom and undergoing interrogation, with the help of the information on Twitter.

The case took an interesting turn when a number of ladies took to social media to narrate similar experiences and also point accusing fingers at the prime suscept. 

As the nation holds its breath to see the outcome of the police investigation, many have also expressed concern and hope that the lady is found alive.

Abuja City Journal attempted to speak to the suspect before he was arrested by the authorities but he was not available. Efforts were also made to ascertain the validity of the claims made by some of these other ladies but as at the time of going to print, none of them could give any concrete proof to back up their claims beyond their accusations made public on social media.