THE REIGN OF KIDNAPPERS

All stakeholders should do more to contain the scourge

Across the country today, the act of kidnapping for ransom has become a growing industry. From ordinary citizens to businessmen and traditional rulers, nobody is safe. Many of the victims have also been killed even when their families paid the demanded ransom for their release. The kidnappers have no regard for age, class or personality as what matters to them is the perceived ransom value of their victims. But many also will point to the way the Oyo State police command rescued Olaide Adegoke John-Paul and her 12-year-old twin sons and arrested four suspected members of the gang linked to their abduction as evidence that when prominent people are involved, the security personnel almost always deliver. John-Paul is a younger sister to the former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Today, many Nigerians can no longer move around freely or even spend quality time with their family without the psychological fear of the dreaded kidnapper lurking around the corner. The concomitant effect of all this is that while citizens live in perpetual fear, investors take their businesses elsewhere. Meanwhile, when this whole madness started, the targets were rich businessmen, politicians, and other well-heeled professionals. But kidnappers have since come to the lower bracket. So prevalent is the crime that the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) once designated Nigeria as the global capital for kidnap for ransom, having overtaken countries like Colombia and Mexico that were hitherto front-runners. The crime has also become a thriving industry with a network of support staff.

To compound the challenge, even families of senior police and military personnel (retired and serving) now pay ransom to kidnappers. Particularly disturbing is the ease with which these kidnappers now target schools. The governing mercantile logic among the kidnappers must be that the abduction of school children is bound to attract huge attention and sympathy, which could in turn translate to heftier ransoms. The danger in allowing this state of affairs to continue, as we have repeatedly warned, is to encourage recourse to self-help by citizens with dire implications.

 Kidnappings, killings and loss of materials and man-hours have become recurrent features on most of the highways. Since a drive through many of the nation’s major roads is now a nightmare, many spots have also become convenient operating centres for kidnappers who lay siege to unsuspecting motorists and other road users. A large country that depends mainly on road transportation for the movement of commodities and persons seems to have surrendered the sector to the tyranny of some unconscionable individuals. But perhaps more worrisome is that too often, even when the security agencies are involved in the rescue bids of kidnapped persons, ransoms are still paid, after which the victims are then abandoned by their abductors for law enforcement agents to “rescue and recover”.

We must, however, highlight the fact that our various communities have a critical role to play in tackling this problem. Kidnappers are not ghosts. They are human beings and they live within communities. Therefore, members of our various communities must realise they have a critical role to play in providing useful information to security agencies that should also begin to act more promptly.

With the increasing sophistication of valued added services offered by communication networks, especially the tracking system, we wonder why it is so difficult for the police to monitor the calls being made by these criminals during negotiations for ransom. But whatever may be the case, we call on security agents to redouble their efforts in dealing with this dangerous phenomenon that is fast turning the country into a huge jungle.