Editor’s note: The recent kidnapping and subsequent release of Olu Falae, a prominent figure in the Nigerian politics, has drawn the attention of masses to Nigeria’s main problem number two after Boko Haram. Kidnappings. Is there an effective way of dealing with the menace and appeasing fears of Nigerians? The Naij.com contributor, Obule Ocheyenor, says there is and prompts to study the case of Abia state handling the kidnapping plague.
Kidnapping for ransom, which was limited to the Niger Delta region less than a decade ago, has now metamorphosed into a lucrative “business” across the country to the extent that even “innocent” Fulani herdsmen hitherto perceived as harmless pastoralists have joined the dangerous bandwagon.
Who could have believed that Fulani herdsmen could kidnap the former Secretary to the government of the federation, Chief Olu Falae, from his farm in Ondo state in western Nigeria? It could have been dismissed as a joke taken too far. But it happened recently.
His abductors had demanded N100 million for him to regain his freedom. The family members of the 77-year-old man said they could only raise N2 million. The kidnappers later slashed the money to N90 million.
READ ALSO: The Fulani Herdsmen From Hell — By Femi Fani-Kayode
No one can say if any amount was paid before Falae regained his freedom after President Muhammadu Buhari personally intervened by giving the inspector general of police, Solomon Arase, the marching orders to rescue the elder statesman at all costs.
Things got out of hand
The abductions of Vanguard Newspaper columnist, Donu Kogbara, and wife of Steve Nwosu, the deputy managing director of The Sun Newspapers preceded the kidnap of Falae and signposted the dimension the crime has grown from the period Niger Delta militants were kidnapping expatriate oil workers in the region for hefty ransom.
And when the expatriates began to enjoy heavy security protection, it became difficult to get them, so the kidnappers turned on Nigerians and started kidnapping anybody that they perceived to be wealthy or connected to a wealthy person. Even schoolchildren were not spared.
This continued until the government of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua granted the militants amnesty because of the heavy losses Nigeria was suffering as a result of oil pipelines being blown up by the militants.
The Abia state option
Just as militancy and kidnapping were abating in the oil-bearing region, there was resurgence of the criminality in Abia state years later. It became so bad in Abia state that indigenes of the state were scared of going home for Christmas and other festive occasions to avoid being kidnapped.
When the situation got out of hand, all arms of security agencies were deployed to the state in a massive operation that eventually restored normalcy in the hitherto beleaguered state. And when Abia became too hot for the kidnappers, they relocated to nearby Anambra, Imo, and the crime also reared its ugly head in other states such as Edo, Kogi, Lagos, Delta, and several others.
Desperate situations call for desperate solution. The Anambra governor, Willie Obiano, had to employ a very drastic measure to curb the crime. He demolished the houses built by kidnappers after they were arrested and tried for the crime. The houses were believed to have been acquired through proceeds from the crime
Some have even called for the death penalty for those found guilty of the crime. The belief is that light sentence for convicted offenders has encouraged others to go into the crime.
Kidnappers must know they are being tracked down
Former state governors in the Southsouth geopolitical zone should be blamed for this monster they created. Most of the kidnappers and militants in the region were political thugs armed by former governors against their political opponents during elections. And after the elections, the guns were not retrieved from the abandoned or sidelined thugs. Left with nothing to do, the thugs turned the guns against their compatriots. The proliferation of small arms hasn’t helped matters either.
With the growing menace of kidnapping, it appears it now ranks as number two, after terrorism, on the scale of the security challenges Nigeria is now facing.
After the defeat of Boko Haram hopefully by December this year, as President Buhari has promised, the Abia state option should be adopted by the federal government in bringing kidnapping in the country to an end or reducing it to the barest minimum. All the security agencies must be deployed to tackle the crime which has become more appealing than the traditional armed robbery that also needs to be combated frontally. A special strike force could also be created specifically to tackle kidnapping.
Nigerians in every part of the country are now living in mortal fear of being kidnapped due to the frequency of high-profile individuals and lots of ordinary citizens being taken into captivity with so much ease.
Telecommunication companies should assist security agencies with call logs to track kidnappers while they are making demands for ransom. If the kidnappers get to know that they could be tracked and arrested, they won’t see the business as being lucrative. The Nigerian Communications Commission should ensure that telecommunication companies properly register sim cards of their customers to avoid a situation where people just obtain sim cards with ease, use them for criminal purposes and later discard them without any trace.
Obule Ocheyenor wrote from Lagos.
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The post To Root Out Kidnapping, FG Must Adopt The Abia State Option appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
To Root Out Kidnapping, FG Must Adopt The Abia State Option
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