Whilst criminals know how to apply the 'Federal Character Principles' in their criminalities, the good-for-nothing Professor Shuaibu AbdulRaheem, Executive Chairman of the FCC and his not good value for money team at the Federal Character Commision who have now outlived their used by date, so should be binned are sleeping and snoring 'defrauding' the toiling masses of the nation's tax payers, collecting salaries for DO-NOTHINGNESS, and giving Buhammadu Muhari the free hand to discolour the nation's polity through his legendary, unparalleled neopotism and Arabism! In this special SPOTLIGHT for Scoprion, DON OKEREKE in his usual witticism thinks even criminals in Nigeria , especially kidnappers do apply 'Federal Character' in their criminal activities, courtesy of their current operational geographical spread!
Introduction
There is no gainsaying the fact that the unprecedented insecurity situation: Boko Haram's bloodletting insurgency/terrorism, kidnapping et al in Nigeria, stifles social life, business activities and foreign direct investment.
Kidnapping for ransom and extortion (KRE) has been a lingering threat and arguably, the fastest growing crime in Nigeria. Religious leaders, statesmen, the elderly, politicians, lecturers, journalists, students, toddlers, everybody is fair game for kidnappers in this clime. Similar to pervasive kidnapping, Nigeria is also upping the ante in human trafficking, which the United Nations Office on Drugs Control (UNODC) estimates, is a thriving 40 billion dollar ‘industry’, globally. The concomitant effect of human trafficking and kidnapping on victims apart from the risk of death or physical injury, sexual assault, is a harrowing life-time psychological torture (lack of trust, fear) or panic attacks it inflicts on them.
Insecurity, Kidnapping: A Global Menace
Every country has its own fair share of security and socio-economic challenges and Nigeria is not an exception. Though the motive may not be the same as the Nigerian kidnap for ransom and extortion (KRE) variant, but it is interesting to note that the United States National Center for Missing Children estimates ‘’that roughly 800, 000 children are reported missing each year in the US’’. That equates to approximately 2,000 children per day out of which 115 are said to be child ‘’stranger abduction’’ cases, meaning that the child was abducted by an unknown individual. For the record, ‘’more people have died from guns (casualty: 1,515,863) in the United states since 1968 than from ALL the wars (casualty: 1,396,733) in American history’’).
One is not here trying to extenuate or downplay the security challenges inherent in Nigeria, but a devil’s advocate may wish to argue that the menace of pervasive gun violence in the United States dwarfs the threat of kidnapping in Nigeria, yet many organizations and so-called armchair experts seldom rank the United States as a ‘’high risk country’’. Any explanation for this double standard?
Nigeria Ranks High in the Global Kidnapping Index
A while ago, Mexico was ranked first, while Nigeria *aced the fifth position in an opprobrious global kidnapping index which was based on reported incidents of kidnappings. Of course, it is established that globally, kidnapping incidents are grossly under-reported and devoid of publicity, hence the aforementioned ranking is dynamic. The tendency not to report or publicize incidents of kidnapping is very patent in Nigeria, where more often than not, folks seldom repose much confidence in the police. Mexico and Columbia understandably lead the pack because kidnapping is a spinoff of an unending drug-associated violence by the various drug cartels fighting for supremacy and buoyed by a complicit, corrupt government security agents. While kidnappings in Mexico, Colombia et al seem to be receding, this heinous crime is upping in Nigeria. If this trend persists, perhaps it is only a matter of time before Nigeria displaces Mexico as the ‘kidnapping capital of the world’.
How Kidnapping Metamorphosed and Spread in Nigeria
Kidnap for ransom and extortion (KRE) was hitherto the stock-in-trade of self-styled Niger-Delta militants who inter-alia used it as a bargaining chip for a fair share of the ‘national cake’. However, kidnapping is no longer the exclusive right of these geezers as this criminal enterprise is fast spreading its tentacles across the nook and cranny of Nigeria. An Igbo proverb suffices thus ‘’Aru gbaa afo, o buru omenala’’. A rough English translation of this adage says: when a crime persists or becomes the order of the day, it becomes a way of life. Amazingly, just one kidnapping incident was recorded in Nigeria in 1992 and no iota of kidnapping successively in 1993, 1995, and 1996 (according to a 2001 study by Hiscox group), but fast-forward to 2015, kidnapping has metamorphosed to a ‘booming enterprise’ in Nigeria. To give us an idea of the prevailing scenario, Daily Trust Newspaper’s report of September 26, 2015 guesstimates that about 110 persons were kidnapped in Nigeria in six months (April to September 2015) and that a dangling N1 billion was demanded for ransom within this period. As is well known, Boko Haram upped the ante with its mass abduction of over 200 school girls from Chibok in Borno State, North-East of Nigeria.
The Epicenter of Kidnapping in Nigeria
Not long ago, South-East (particularly Abia state), Nigeria was reputed as the kidnapping capital of Nigeria, but that seems to have changed now. While a survey by the CLEEN Foundation (Center for Law Enforcement Education) shows that people are more likely to be kidnapped in South-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria than any other region, Daily Trust newspaper opines that kidnapping is more prominent in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. This disparity can be reconciled by the method of extrapolating the data and the shifting or dynamic nature of kidnapping. Kidnappers are amorphous and are not bound by geographical boundaries. If the kidnapping of the 276 or so Chibok school girls and several others kidnapped, conscripted by Boko Haram is factored in, then North-East Nigeria can also be said to be a haven for kidnapping. However, if the motive is strictly the kidnap for ransom and extortion (KRE) variant, we can safely extrapolate that such kidnappings are generally predominant in the Southern and Middle Belt of Nigeria than in the core North.
One Kidnapping Too Many: Litany of Recent Kidnappings in Nigeria
Recall that Prof. Kamene Okonjo, octogenarian mother of Nigeria’s erstwhile Minister of Finance Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was kidnapped in 2012; Kate Eni and Patience Egebeni, both Cousins of former President Goodluck Jonathan and one Mrs; Rosemary Osahagolu, the Vice-Chancellor of Rivers State University of Education fell victim to kidnappers; a Head of Department at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) was kidnapped from her home, N20million was reportedly demanded as ransom; a United States Missionary was once kidnapped in central Nigeria, while three women were abducted in Bayelsa State and one of them was later found dead.
In a related incident, 3 women were abducted in Ekiti state; a regent was kidnapped in Ondo state and N20million ransom was demanded; an Anglican Bishop was kidnapped and N40million ransom was demanded; an Israeli expat was killed in Nigeria in kidnapping attempt, so also, a Catholic priest was kidnapped in Kogi State; gunmen kidnapped Sun Newspaper’s Deputy MD’s wife, Mrs. Toyin Nwosu in Lagos and was freed after a former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzo Kalu reportedly ‘’intervened’’ (euphemism for ransom payment?).
Also, in Lagos state, a nanny kidnapped 3 children under her care; the son of the Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt was also kidnapped in Rivers State; a prominent hotelier was kidnapped in Niger state by gunmen; a 92-yr-old monarch was kidnapped in Bayelsa and also one Professor Zibokere Daukiye was kidnapped in Bayelsa State, South-South Nigeria.
Not to be outdone, gunmen abducted the District head of Wamakko in Sokoto state and one of the latest high profile victims of indiscriminate kidnapping in Nigeria is a septuagenarian former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae supposedly by Fulani herdsmen. Chief Falae insists his family paid a N5 million ransom to secure his release and this has been corroborated by the alleged culprits who now in police custody. These are just random examples.
Ransom: To Pay or Not To Pay
Ndigbo have an aphorism that utmost finesse and precision is needed in handling a tsetse fly that perched on a man’s balls. Same principle applies in trying to free a kidnap victim from the clutches of his abductors. Granted, payment of ransom to kidnappers to effect the release of their victims is a moral issue and it encourages the goons to wallow in this crime and the Nigeria police frown at such practice, but it appears payment of ransom is a hobson’s choice when push comes to shove, especially in a country where there is no guarantee that the security agencies will live up to expectations.
Kidnap victims in Nigeria are more likely to promptly waltz free, if the victims' well-wishers play ball than when they want to play James Bond. In 2013, the former deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike was killed by his abductors, not because ransom was not paid, but because the kidnappers demanded N30 million and the family only came up with a paltry N5 million. According to the report, the kidnappers subsequently rang the wife of the deputy governor and urged her to ‘’use the N25 million balance to bury her husband’’.
In September 2015, the Edo State Police Command reportedly uncovered the lifeless body of a lecturer of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Professor Paul Erie who was abducted three months earlier. The kidnappers were said to have demanded ‘’a huge sum of money’’ for his release. Not sure whether his family paid the amount or not before his corpse was discovered in a shallow grave. In Aba, Abia state, abductors of one Mrs. Chioma Chukwura reportedly killed her after they became suspicious that they were being trailed by security operatives in the process of trying to pick up the ransom money. Of course, recall Chief Olu Falae saying that his family paid N5 million to secure his release. Perhaps, Chief Falae may not have come out alive if his family didn’t do the needful thing.
Kidnappings in Nigeria: Accusing Fingers
It is trite that kidnappings in Nigeria are perpetrated on the façade of economic rationalities or as an instrument of political coercion/intimidation, terrorism (e.g. Boko haram’s abduction of the Chibok school girls), but some worrying dimensions are the allusion that proceeds of kidnapping (ransoms) could be fuelling insecurity (terrorism) and the alleged culpability of security agents by acts of commission or omission.
Lately, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) pressed for a probe of security agents’ alleged role in kidnappings in Nigeria alleging that evidence it amassed from eye witnesses and relations of victims of kidnapping who were eventually freed after huge payments changed hands, suggests that some police commissioners, especially in the South-East, pegged police ‘settlements’ at N1 million, to be paid by family members of kidnapped folks before the police could swing into action on a reported incident of kidnapping.
A notable case was an allegation that after a certain family member in a South-East state ‘settled’ the police, the kidnappers had to increase their ransom demand from N3 million to N5 million because the kidnappers contended that if the family could pay N1 million to the police, they must pay N5 million to them. It also appears that the more prominent or influential a kidnap victim is in Nigeria, the likelihood that the security agencies will throw its hat in the ring and solve the riddle to forestall public embarrassment and outcry, but not so for small fry victims of kidnapping.
The foregoing explains why relatives or associates of many kidnapped victims in Nigeria rarely go public or bother to get security agents involved. Bad eggs in the security agencies are rubbing the names of the agencies in the mud. Just recently, the Sun Newspaper reported the arrest of a 38-year-old Corporal I.L.O. Peter, serving at Oguta Division of the Imo State Police Command and Constable Nicholas Ogbianu, 37, who was dismissed from the Delta State Police Command in Onitsha, Anambra State, for robbery and for impersonation respectively.
Capital Punishment For Kidnapping, A Paper-tiger?
Sometime in 2009, the 36 State Governors in Nigeria met at the Kwara State Liaison office in Abuja under the auspices of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). At the end of their meeting, they issued a communiqué which inter-alia, urged the Federal Government ‘’to bring the full weight of the law on culprits of kidnapping’. True to their words, kidnapping currently attracts a death sentence in the following states: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, and Kogi. The then Delta state governor reportedly refused to assent to the death sentence bill passed by the State Assembly, one is not sure if the Bill became a law, willy-nilly. As a matter of fact, as I was writing this piece, news filtered in, that three medical doctors and a lecturer were kidnapped in Imo and Kogi States, respectively despite the fact that kidnapping attracts a death sentence in these two States. Given the geometric progression of kidnapping in Nigeria, notwithstanding capital punishment for kidnappers, one wonders whether a death sentence is indeed, a deterrent or an antidote to kidnapping?
