Despite an escalation in kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry across the country, the prosecution of suspects has been few and sluggish. So alarming has been this worrisome gap in the dispensation of justice that the President, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), recently recommended that special courts are established to expedite trials. The proposal unerringly strikes the right chord.
Experts say court specialisation is a rapidly growing trend in the United States, Europe, and many other regions of the world. In a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, Buhari urged him to consider taking immediate steps to designate some special courts in all states and the Federal Capital Territory for the project. “There is the need to ensure that the Chief Judges of States and FCT High Courts direct lower courts to comply with requirements of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law in issuing remand warrants in criminal cases, especially in cases which are not within their jurisdiction,” he advocated.
Like every other social challenge in the country, governments at all levels appear to be inured to the evil of kidnapping that has spanned over a decade, with no solution in sight just yet. Ravaging towns and rural communities, the victims cut across all ages, the rich and the poor. Kidnappers do not just fleece their victims of millions in cash; they also kill, rape and maim them. These days, the Kaduna–Abuja Highway has been abandoned by commuters who prefer to travel by train because of the increasing number of cases and the ease with which commercial vehicles passengers are kidnapped. Several other highways too have become dangerous to ply. The horror accounts for why Nigeria was a few years ago, ranked fifth in kidnapping globally, behind Mexico, India, Pakistan and Iraq by Control Risk, a United Kingdom-based consultancy.
Kidnapping as a security nightmare assumed a new national focus with the arrest of Evans Onwuamadike in August 2017, in Lagos. He was a billionaire criminal kingpin, who reportedly collected a whopping $4 million from four victims. His prosecution began at a Lagos High Court where he had pleaded guilty to the charges, but his change of plea added a de novo dimension to his trial in March 2018. Nevertheless, it is difficult to understand why the Lagos State Government has not been able to conclude the case in two years even when it is armed with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 that was created to fast track the wheels of justice.
Besides Onwuamadike, Hamisu Wadume’s case in Taraba State has not taken off. The alleged kidnapping linchpin, arrested and handcuffed by the police, was freed by some soldiers — his accomplices — who shot dead three officers taking him to the state police headquarters. This has raised questions of corruption and long-standing collusion between criminal gangs and security agents.
Police statistics on kidnapping are indeed scary. The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, during a meeting with the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, revealed that 685 persons were kidnapped nationwide in the first quarter of 2019. Zamfara together with the other North-West states topped the chart. The country recorded 212 robbery cases within the same period. This underlines the fact that the situation is growing worse compared to the 2015 outlook that had 886 cases throughout the country. Rivers and Lagos states led with 294 and 142 cases respectively. Other states in this dreadful loop are Ebonyi 79; Ekiti 56; Ogun 52; Benue 41; Adamawa; 38 and Taraba 24.
The ugly trend should be curbed. Kidnappers, armed robbers and bandits are in the same bracket as murderers; they should be treated accordingly. A broad spectrum of their victims, including the two-year-old girl Faridah, whose actress mother, Aisha Ali-Balogun, was killed in Lagos in December 2018, but was held until ransom was paid, shows that nobody is safe. Faridah’s case is also a reminder of the vulnerability of other minors, kidnapped in the streets, churches and schools, including six pupils of Lagos State Model College at Igbonla, in Epe.
The scourge is turning the country into an ungoverned territory. Periodically, medical doctors, clerics, lawyers and judicial officers lament the dangers they face in the hands of these felons. Foreign investors have been scared away and will remain so until the country reins in the criminals. As many as 15 states: Rivers, Lagos, Delta, Imo, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Kano, Bayelsa, Enugu, Benue, Kaduna, Bauchi, Kogi, Cross River and the FCT, have legislated capital punishment for the offence as a deterrent. But sorely lacking is the political will to enforce this and well organised mechanisms to hunt down the perpetrators, apprehend them and speedily put them through the judicial process. Therefore, the special courts idea should offer another opportunity to correct the lapses and decisively deal with brigandage.
The police should get serious with their job. A former IG, Ibrahim Idris, had set up Special Tracking Units in each of the country’s six zones to coordinate the tracking of robbers and kidnappers in the states therein. The way the criminals run riot all over the place with sophisticated weapons confirms the failure of the scheme. Checkmating these heinous criminals requires new strategies that should be driven by intelligence, high-tech and a professional police force.
Ultimately, the justice and correctional systems need to effectively prosecute, imprison and reform law offenders.
