Kidnapping has gone out of control in the country, making a mockery of our national security architecture. In a case that arrested national attention in January, kidnappers abducted a traditional ruler in Delta State, Akaeze Ofulue, and demanded a ransom of N100 million to be paid within 24 hours. Although the money or part of it was allegedly paid, the victim was found dead a few days later. The police responded with their stock phrase of “working hard to fish out the killers.” The victims of kidnapping have heard enough of this hollow monologue; what is needed is a holistic approach by the police to tackling the marauding gangs.
The hotbed used to be the South-South geopolitical zone, where well-armed militants made it a sideshow to their insurgency and sabotage of oil facilities, since it was also lucrative. Kidnapping moved on quickly, berthing next in the South-East region, where it rose to a very dangerous level, before spreading its tentacles to other parts of the country. Today, impressionable youths are frequently kidnapping people for ransom while deranged ritual killers are spreading their bloody trade across the country.
Regrettably, there has been no sustained police response against the mess, allowing kidnappers to operate with impunity and abduct people at will. Sometimes they even kill their victims. The African Insurance Organisation, a Cameroon-based body, says that kidnapping has become a monster. “Nigeria is now the kidnap capital of the world, accounting for a quarter of globally reported cases,” the AIO warned. NYA International, a United Kingdom-based global risk and crisis management consultancy, confirmed this by naming Nigeria top among the five countries with the highest cases of kidnapping in the world between January and June 2015.
Almost everybody feels the fangs of the hoodlums: the young and old; the poor and rich; artisans and professionals. Before the government declared amnesty for militants in 2009, the hoodlums milked foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta region by collecting huge ransoms. In Lagos last month, a suspect confessed that he kidnapped the three-year-old son of his co-tenant and sold him to ritual killers. Despite his confession, the little boy has not been traced.
Michael Ojelabi, aged four, is not better off. A woman forcibly took him away on his way back from school in the company of his sister, Oyindamola, aged eight, at the Iba area of Lagos last month. Felicia Destiny, 11, who was abducted at the age of six in Etsako Local Government Area in Edo State, made a sex slave in Onitsha, Anambra State, was only rescued alongside Esther Augustine, also 11, in Akamkpa, Cross River State last January.
Medical doctors, for reasons yet unknown, are a prime target. Last month, doctors reportedly embarked on a strike in Rivers State to protest against the incessant abduction of their members. Obiabo Yahaya, a neurologist at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, was kidnapped by gunmen who traced him to his house. In Imo State, three doctors on a medical mission to Isu LGA were taken away at gunpoint.
Politicians and elder statesmen are not left out. Olu Falae (77), a former Minister of Finance, was abducted by Fulani herdsmen at his Akure, Ondo State farm last September. Indeed, many victims and their families have been paying ransom without the knowledge of the police. Victor Olabimtan, a former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, was captured at gunpoint in Kwale, on his way to Abuja and was not let off the hook until a ransom was allegedly paid. In a tragic case in January in Ekiti State, the monarch of Aiyede, Orisagbemi Adeleye, and the provost of the College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Gabriel Olowoyo, were abducted at different points. But they met the same end: dastardly death in an auto accident as their kidnappers tried to escape with them. Gabriel Oloro, 85, was kidnapped on his way home from his farm in Ikere Ekiti in January.
In 2014, the police discovered a ritual killers’ den in Soka forest, Ibadan, capital of Oyo State. Twenty decomposing bodies and skeletons were found there; 23 victims were rescued. Kidnappers’ dens have also been discovered in Ogun, Lagos and Delta states. Experts say that the impact of kidnapping is severe on victims in terms of mental and physical trauma. There is also the financial implication for the families involved.
This malfeasance requires radical and creative countervailing measures. States like Abia and Anambra, where kidnapping was once rife, adopted tough measures. They passed laws imposing the death penalty and mandatory demolition of the properties of kidnappers in their domains. It has worked well in those two states.
In Abia, the military joined in fighting the menace. In Anambra, Governor Willie Obiano equipped the Nigerian Navy with tools and boats. However, the death penalty law has not stemmed the nuisance in states like Bayelsa and Delta. Kidnapping is still a regular occurrence in Bayelsa. To curb kidnapping, the Federal Government and states should adopt tough laws.
We have to recognise that kidnapping is a pressing national problem. It is a very attractive crime because of the huge ransoms and the failure of the police to bring the perpetrators to book. The incentive for crime has to be removed. Second, the police should broaden the scope of their special unit on kidnapping. The counter-kidnapping squad should devise and provide the tactics to reduce the crime, as it is being done in the United Kingdom by the Anti-Kidnap and Extortion Unit of the National Crime Agency.
In the United States, where states and cities have their own police forces, kidnapping is a federal crime and the Federal Bureau of Investigations takes charge when perpetrators cross state lines with their victims. The FBI, through its Top Hoodlum Programme, maintains a data bank on criminal gangs from field officers and acts on it. The Department of State Services also needs to step up its intelligence activities on kidnapping.
The Federal Government should not think that the crisis would ebb on its own, but should initiate concrete measures against it. At a time when we need foreign direct investment, we should invent our own unique strategies to end this epidemic. Kidnappers employ technology to demand ransom. The police should turn the tables against them by using ICT gadgets. Governments should complete the closed circuit TV projects nationwide to help in monitoring criminal gangs. Moreover, the police should mobilise communities, local vigilance groups and traditional authorities to help.
Curbing free reign of kidnappers – Punch
