Onovo stated that the four journalists kidnapped along Uyo-Aba expressway last Sunday while returning from the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NUJ would regain their freedom today as the intelligence arm of the police had already traced the kidnappers to a particular place. He however refused to reveal the identity of the village where the kidnappers had been traced to. Addressing officers and men of the Enugu State police command in continuation of his official visit to police formations in the South-east zone, Onovo expressed dismay that his kinsmen were behind cases of kidnapping within the country as well as in some foreign lands, including Malaysia and South Africa. He decried the increasing spate of kidnapping, which he said, had assumed a dangerous dimension, but noted that the police was determined to equally confront the situation head-on. "The problem of kidnapping has become so worrisome; the situation is really getting out of hand. It has taken over the South-east. We must ask, why this menace has become permanent in the South-east. Are these gangsters not human beings? Are they ghosts? From available records, virtually all the suspected kidnappers arrested across the country are Igbos. "Nobody is spared. Even kidnap cases in foreign lands are carried out by our brothers, the Igbos. We have cases of kidnap in Malaysia and South Africa where the origin of the perpetrators were traced to South-east Nigeria," he said. While noting that various strategies had been adopted to check the situation, the IG however warned that any police officer involved in the ugly menace will not only be dismissed, but would be made to face the full weight of the law. He also lent his support to the recent decision of the five governors of the south east who approved death penalty for anybody that is found to be involved in the act as well as any property that is used to carry out the nefarious act.