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Ozioma Onyenweaku
In the 2000s the Niger Delta Militants hit the street big with the kidnapping of foreign oil workers. That was in a bid to draw attention to the plight of the Niger Delta people over oil spillage in the area. The oil companies in desperate move to rescue their officers offered to pay ransom. Seeing another side to the kidnapping, more and more top officers were abducted, and huge ransom collected. So was set the boom business of kidnapping.
Following that, anti-kidnapping squad was set up by the Nigeria Police Force in the 2000s to curtail the rising case of kidnapping. Yet the kidnapping rate kept increasing.
Intelligence Response Team was also created to deal with the threat of kidnapping. Hundreds of Police officers were deployed to man, and patrol the highways particularly those highways that record high kidnapping cases.
Several states in Nigeria passed into law Bills that outlaw kidnapping and abduction. For example, Ebony State through its Internal Security Enforcement and Related Matters law (CAP 55) prescribes death sentence for the offence of kidnapping; Imo State Anti-kidnapping bill also prescribes death sentence; so also Akwa Ibom state, Rivers State, Enugu State, Delta State and some others.
“The greatest incentive to crime is the hope of escaping punishment”
In 2016, Kano State (the first from the region) signed into law a bill recommending execution for kidnappers who are convicted of killing their captives, while those that abducted but did not kill their victims would be jailed for life
On the Federal level, Nigeria has Nigeria Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 to curb terrorism of any nature, and to promote “the protection of persons and their properties from abuse as well as enhance freedom of others in the same society” The punishment for the offence of kidnapping was put at maximum of 10 years.
In September 2017 a bill was passed into law outlawing abduction, wrongful restraint or confinement for ransom – “Whoever is guilty of the offence and then results in the death of the victim shall be liable on conviction to be sentenced to death”; and 30-year jail term for anyone who colludes with abductor to receive ransom”. That leaves life imprisonment for the offence of kidnapping that results in no death of the victim.
With all the machinery in place, Nigeria is overwhelmed by the insecurity occasioned by the activities of the kidnappers and abductors. In 2014 about 276 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok. In February 2018, about 110 school girls, ages of 11 & 19, were kidnapped from Government Girls Science & Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State. Some others include the Kangara boys, another in Zamfara, and yet another in Niger State. Kidnapping and abduction of school children has become almost a daily affair. So what are we not doing right in the fight against kidnapping and abduction?
So what fuels the wings of the abductors? We have to look inward and see where we are not getting things right in this area.
What is our reality? Nigeria has been ‘fighting’ the fight with a kid’s gloves. How on earth does one expect to end abduction when the abductors are romanced, and treated to a King’s banquet! How do we end this menace when the abductors dictate the terms and they are obliged? For instance, about a hundred of the Chibok girls were released in a Prisoner Swap deal between the abductors and the government. In this deal, five Boko Haram Commanders were released in exchange for the hundred young innocent girls. In the case of the Dapchi girls where two of the girls were found dead, 104 of them were freed after the payment of ransom. The recent ones are no exception.
Here, we are yet to record any bandit arrested for abduction, tried, convicted and sentenced to serve as a deterrent to others. Instead we present ourselves as people condoning the crime of abduction and kidnapping, and as such create enabling environment for it to thrive. Crimes are meant to be punished for. When there is no punishment for a crime, the criminal is emboldened to commit more crime. Like Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “The greatest incentive to crime is the hope of escaping punishment”
In Nigeria, the abductors do not just hope to escape punishment, they have assured expectation of escaping punishment.
For us to achieve result in combating abduction/kidnapping, we must review our current anti-kidnapping approach. We have to get our priorities right, and channel efforts and resources towards this cause. For now, we fuel the wings of the abductors.