UPDATE: POLICE FREE WOMAN HELD HOSTAGE IN ABUJA HOTEL BY ONLINE DATE
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Promise Eze, a 25-year-old lady, was bound and rendered unconscious by a guy she met on an online dating service before being saved by Federal Capital Territory Police Command officers.
Police have launched a manhunt to apprehend the suspect, who initially claimed to be Michael Prince but eventually revealed his true identity as Emmanuel Okoro.
Josephine Adeh, the command spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday that the police had received a distress call from a hotel in the FCT’s Wuse district after observing suspicious activity in one of its rooms.
According to Adeh, when police arrived, they found Eze asleep on the floor, chained to a tiny chair, and with plaster over her mouth.
She noted that Eze was immediately rushed to Wuse District Hospital, where she was resuscitated.
“On January 31, 2025, at approximately 11:30 AM, the command received a distress call from a hotel in the Wuse area of the FCT, reporting suspicious activity in one of their rooms.
“Responding swiftly, police operatives arrived at the scene and discovered a 25-year-old woman, Promise Eze, from Ebonyi State, tied to a small chair with her mouth covered in plaster. She was found unconscious and in distress. Officers acted immediately, freeing her from captivity and rushing her to the Wuse District Hospital, where she was resuscitated”, the statement partly read.
According to Adeh, initial enquiries showed that Eze and Okoro, whom she had met online, had booked into the hotel the morning before, January 30.
She said that the suspect had impersonated a Delta State-based employee of an oil business.
Eze had initially accepted the suspect’s invitation to visit him in Delta State, but she declined, agreeing to meet him in Abuja instead, according to Adeh.
“Preliminary investigations revealed a disturbing pattern of deception and violence. The victim had checked into the hotel a day earlier, on January 30, 2025, at about 7:00 AM, in the company of a man who identified himself as Emmanuel Okoro from Lagos State.
“However, during police questioning, the victim disclosed that she had met the suspect online, where he introduced himself under the alias Michael Prince, claiming to be an oil company employee based in Delta State. Initially, he invited her to Delta State, but after she declined, they agreed to meet in Abuja.”
Adeh added that Eze said Okoro brandished a dagger to threaten her before tying her up and taping her mouth inside the hotel’s bathroom.
“What was meant to be an innocent meeting turned into a harrowing ordeal. The suspect allegedly brandished a dagger, using it to threaten and subdue the victim before restraining her by tying her hands and legs and taping her mouth shut inside the bathroom. He then fled the scene, stealing her two mobile phones. Alarmingly, before escaping, the victim overheard him speaking to suspected accomplices over the phone, informing them that he was on his way to regroup before returning to the hotel to ‘finish the job,’” the statement added.
According to Adeh, CP Olatunji Disu, the FCT Commissioner of Police, denounced the act and cautioned young ladies about the risks of meeting strangers online.
He encouraged anyone with helpful information about the suspect’s whereabouts to contact the command’s emergency lines and reassured the public that efforts were being made to find the person.
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