Undoubtedly, the recent abduction of elder statesman, Olu Falae, by men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen has once again highlighted the grave security threat posed by kidnapping to lives in Nigerians. It also raises questions about the extent to which our society has lost its moral values of respect for its senior citizens if a bunch of hoodlums could invade the privacy of a 77-year-old man and take him to some unknown destination where he was held against his will for four days – just because of money.
With terrorism, fuelled by activities of Boko Haram, raging in the North-East, while kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism and other forms of insecurity are ravaging other parts of the country, Nigeria is certainly confronted with a complex web of security challenges. Only a drastic review of the current strategies can guarantee the safety of lives and property.
Falae’s abduction may have attracted attention because of his status in the society, but he is by no means the only victim of this vile act. Here is a man who at different times served as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a Minister of Finance, a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service, one of the two presidential candidates that contested the 1999 election and many more. So, if abduction could be deemed the most befitting gift for such an illustrious Nigerian on his 77th birthday, the fate that could befall the many other not-so-prominent Nigerians can only be imagined.
It is sad indeed that Nigerians have watched helplessly as kidnapping, a form of criminality rampant among drug cartels and street gangs in countries such as Mexico and Colombia, gradually blossomed into a serious security threat in the country. A recent newspaper report has it that about 110 kidnap cases were recorded in the country in the past six months, with demand for ransom hitting the N1 billion mark. In fact, the most bizarre case of kidnapping was that of the close to 300 Chibok girls who were whisked away from their school premises by Boko Haram terrorists in April last year and have yet to regain their freedom.
Until the upsurge in the past one decade or so, kidnapping could well be classified among the lesser crimes in the country. Then the victims were usually children, stolen mainly for ritual purposes, and they were few and far between. The pattern, however, changed when Niger Delta militants started kidnapping foreigners in what they claimed was meant to draw global attention to their demand for greater share in the oil wealth. Upon realising that they could easily make millions from it, they ensured that the criminality spread to Nigerians.
Among prominent victims have been Kamene Okonjo, the mother of former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Elechi Amadi, a renowned author; Pete Edoche, a prominent Nollywood actor; and Peter Adamokhai, a retired General in the Nigerian Army, among others. There was also the case of a nanny, Mary Akinloye, who made away with three children of the Orekoya family in Lagos.
Particularly harrowing is the experience of kidnap victims while in captivity. In the case of Falae, the septuagenarian was made to trek a distance of over 15 kilometres and had to sleep on the bare floor for four days. Narrating his experience, he said that he narrowly escaped death because ransom was delivered to his captors barely a few minutes to their set deadline. Some others have even suffered a worse fate. A medical doctor, Stanley Uche, was reportedly killed after his abductors collected a ransom of N30 million.
Unfortunately, the response of Nigerian security forces so far has not been encouraging. They have failed to develop effective capacity to tackle the crime even as the kidnappers become more sophisticated in their ways. When confronted a few days ago, the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, surprisingly said that the situation was not as bad as was being portrayed. “Comparative figure outside Nigeria shows that ours is still within manageable level. Whenever it happens we are able to arrest them and deal with them,” he said.
His response is however strange, given the fact that the country was designated the kidnap capital of the world at a meeting of the African Insurance Organisation in Balaclaya, Mauritius in 2012. The meeting, based on figures of 2011, said that Nigeria accounted for “a quarter of globally reported cases.”
Rather than try to play down the serious challenge posed by kidnapping, the Nigerian authorities have to come out with a serious response. In the South-East states where kidnapping became a thriving industry, the governments have been able to check the incidence by ensuring that the criminals are not allowed to enjoy the proceeds of their crime. To that end, the governments of these states have made sure that buildings used by kidnappers or built by them are demolished. A few states, including Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, have also made kidnapping a crime punishable by death, although nobody has been put to death on account of the crime so far.
Especially in the South-West, where the crime has shifted to, there is the need to come out with special squads to track down kidnappers. The squads should be specially trained and equipped as is the case now with those involved in counter-insurgency operations. If the strategies are not changed there is nothing to show that the tempo of kidnapping will slow down.
