BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Nigeria is currently grappling with insecurity on a large scale cutting across the six geo-political regions, particularly in the North-East, North-Central, Northwest and Southeast regions. No day passes without reports of kidnapping, banditry, robbery, murder and wanton killings. More worrying is the fact that, in spite of huge resources being injected into the defense sector, the Nigerian government seems unable to curb this menace that has been troubling the nation for a long time.
Security hitches in the country have become something of grave concern to all well-meaning citizens as they continue to wonder how the country arrived at such a dastardly situation where no one is safe; and worse still, rather than abate, the problem is escalating and now totally out of control.
Nigerians now travel on roads in panic even as there are some roads, like Kaduna-Abuja, that some travelers have seen as death traps. Residents, especially in the affected regions, now hardly sleep with both eyes closed while the government that is normally entrusted with the security of their life and properties seems to be helpless.
During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, there were pockets of bombings and attacks by Boko Haram terrorists. Their activities defiled solutions. When the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was voted in, one of the promises it made was to tackle insecurity, rescue abducted Nigerians in captivity and ensure that factors aiding insecurity are addressed. Unfortunately, the situation has rather worsened ever since Buhari took over governance.
One of the key dimensions of this criminality is the practice of kidnapping for ransom, which according to reports, has spawned a billion naira industry since the inception of Buhari’s government. Kidnapping has grown in Nigeria to the extent that a day hardly passes without a report of abduction, especially on the highways. The new trend has become a big business for terrorists and bandits across the country as they kidnap at will, demand ransom and even kill some of their captives after collecting millions of naira from victim’s relations. These occurrences of woes are endless as government and politicians have been channeling their resources in prosecuting the forthcoming elections.
Statistics of kidnapping incidents in the country chill the bones. Reports show that from 2018, there has been a steady increase in the number of kidnap victims. The figure rose from 987 victims in 2018 to 1,395 in 2019. The figure rose to 2,865 in 2020 and 5,287 in 2021. Of the 2021 figure, more than 2000 were children and young people according to a UN study.
“The lawmaker accused Buhari, Osinbajo and members of the Federal Executive Council of failure and insensitivity to the plights of the victims of kidnap adding that politicians go ahead with electioneering activities without a sense of pity and empathy for the family members of the abductees”
This year alone, several hundred of Nigerians have been kidnapped and the most harrowing being the attack on a train along the Abuja-Kaduna rail line in Kaduna State on March 28, where 168 people were reportedly kidnapped and eight persons killed including a young doctor due to travel out of the country the very week of the incident. The kidnapped victims of that attack are still in captivity as of the time of this report.
Another report revealed that in January, this year, 915 of the 1486 victims of kidnapping or insecurity, lost their lives. Among these slain victims are Catholic priests and other Nigerians who were gruesomely killed even after giving their abductors ransom.
Last of the reported cases of the dastardly business was the abduction of the Methodist Church Nigeria Prelate, His Eminence Samuel Kanu Uche, the Bishop of Owerri Diocese, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark and the Prelate’s chaplain in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State.
Narrating his near-death experience in the hands of kidnappers at a press conference held at Methodist Church Yaba, Lagos State after he was released alongside other clerics, Kanu said their abductors were Fulanis and alleged that some personnel of the Nigerian Army from Fulani extraction were aiding the kidnappers in their activities.
The priest said the kidnappers would disguise as herders in the daytime but are kidnappers at night. He called on the government to take decisive action “otherwise what is happening in the north will be a child’s play.”
Kanu stated that all efforts made to ensure that he was released were the effort of the Methodist Church and members and not security personnel or the government.
The clergyman said the Church had to contribute the sum of N100 million as ransom to the young kidnappers before they were set free after hours of wandering in the bush.
Recall that the Nigerian Senate had passed a bill seeking to amend the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2013, which will prohibit the payment of ransom to kidnappers in the country. The bill seeks to outlaw the payment of ransom to abductors, kidnappers, and terrorists for the release of any person who has been wrongfully confined, imprisoned, or kidnapped. After the passage of the bill by the Senate in April, President Buhari was yet to give his assent.
Pay ransom and free Nigerians, stakeholders tell FG
Dissatisfied with the litany of insecurity incidents, especially kidnapping for ransom across the country, a member of the House of Representatives representing Ede North/Ede South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Constituency of Osun State, Bamidele Salam last week protested bare-footed in Abuja in solidarity with the victims of Abuja-Kaduna train kidnap who have been in the captivity of kidnappers since March this year.
According to the lawmaker, he engaged in the solo demonstration to solidarise with the abductees and other citizens in captivity of bandits and terrorists all over the country. Salam, who carried a placard bearing pictures of some of the kidnap victims, said in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday that he walked from the Unity Fountain in Abuja to the National Assembly complex.
Dressed in black colour pair of trousers and a shirt, Salam displayed a placard bearing inscriptions such as “Muhammadu Buhari, please, do more to secure freedom for the Kaduna train abductees and other citizens in captivity.”
He appealed to President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, to as a matter of urgency, expedite action in making sure those in the den of their captors are freed, either negotiating with the kidnappers or disarming the terrorists and rescuing the innocent victims from their den.
The lawmaker accused Buhari, Osinbajo and members of the Federal Executive Council of failure and insensitivity to the plights of the victims of kidnap adding that politicians go ahead with electioneering activities without a sense of pity and empathy for the family members of the abductees.
Salam said, “It’s so unfortunate. You will recall that before the President (Buhari) decided to relieve the former Service Chiefs of their positions, there had to be nothing less than seven motions by the House of Representatives asking for the rejigging of the security system and bringing in fresh hands. The same thing happened in the floor of the Senate. It’s unfortunate that we have to make a lot of agitations, a lot of noise, to get the right things done by President and the Federal Executive Council. I traveled on the Kaduna-Abuja train service once and I regret to say that on that one occasion, I did tell someone who was on the train that the security system on the train was extremely porous. We have young boys and girls who are hawking groundnuts and water, hopping on and off the train in the 21st century. Nobody is being scanned.
“So, President, the Almighty Allah will ask you about these men and women who are in captivity of bandits and terrorists in Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto states and in every part of the country, because you are a Muslim and you fear the Almighty Allah, he will ask you what has happened to them. You must be able to give an account, not only to him but to all who elected him into office. I also challenge the Vice President, who is a pastor, you must have read what David did in the book of 1st Samuel, chapter 30, when something similar to this happened, David, the king of Israel, the leader of Israel, came back and found out that his children and wives and citizens have been abducted by bandits and terrorists, the Bible says he cried out his heart and after that, he went after the abductors and he recovered all.
“Now, Mr President and Vice President, you should go all out and recover all. No citizen of this country must be left while you rode office. If that is not done, then this government has failed. It has failed God and citizens of this country. Government should do everything it has to do to get them freed. If the government does not have the capacity to overwhelm them, then the government should go into negotiation with them and get our citizens freed,” the representative declared.
Also speaking, a member of the National Executive Committee of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Most Rev Peter Ogunmuyiwa, who doubles as the Archbishop of Abuja Metropolitan Province of the North African Church, lamented the danger in kidnappers targeting the Church at a time when the government is already tired of tackling insecurity.
Ogunmuyiwa accused President Buhari and other top public office holders of aiding kidnapping and other forms of insecurity adding that whenever the government started paying the ransom, kidnapping would reduce.
The cleric said, “I think this is a very unfortunate situation we have found ourselves in this country. This is not the first time, this is not the second time and it’s now becoming a phenomenon in our society today. Our value system as it were has been eroded. In those days, there was sanity in the system but these days, we have all manners of things that you cannot even imagine happening in our country. Now, the men of God have become the target of kidnappers in recent times and I think it calls for serious concern and it’s very disturbing. Imagine the calibre of our father, the prelate of the Methodist Church who was kidnapped and made to pay money for the crime that we didn’t know anything about. They said he has to pay about N100 million. The Church money is the one that comes from the ordinary people who are the less privileged, now, you garner this money into the hands of the few.
“Another disturbing thing is that these people are well identified. And the government appears not to be doing anything about it. Look at the Kaduna train kidnapping incident that took place. Up till today, nothing has been done. Also, the Bethel School in Kaduna, it’s the Church that went out and see how they can raise that money from nowhere and the government is not feeling any pain about this. It’s very sad and I think it’s high time things needed to be done to address this issue frontally to come out of this mess we have found ourselves as a nation.
“The responsibility of government as we have it in the constitution is to protect its citizens. Government can never be tired of performing its constitutional responsibility. I believe that what is happening now is a very big business and I think some government agents are culprits in it. If not so, there is a Head of State who once said that if insecurity persists, then it means government itself is part of it. So, I believe from the confession of our father, the Prelate, he also confessed that there are security agents or agencies that were backing these people). It shows that government is also part of it and that’s unfortunate because the thing has become a norm in our system and we don’t know who will be the next target. It’s very dangerous that men of God have now been the target.
“You know that recently, the National Assembly passed a funny law that says don’t pay ransom once you are kidnapped. Now, if you don’t pay ransom, it means you have surrendered yourself to be killed. Nobody will want himself or family members to be killed. And now, the government is not doing anything because I believe that government and its agents are also part of this criminality that is going on.
“But, as it is, the government is not feeling any pain. Look at all the political parties, they continue with their political activities and feel there is nothing wrong with the system, both the APC and PDP want to continue with the rotten system that we have found ourselves”
“Where I will take the government of the day serious is where the government will take responsibility of paying the ransom of whoever that is kidnapped. If government coughs out N100 million today and N200 million tomorrow for these people, then it will feel the pain.
But, as it is, the government is not feeling any pain. Look at all the political parties, they continue with their political activities and feel there is nothing wrong with the system, both the APC and PDP, they want to continue with the rotten system that we have found ourselves. It appears there is no hope for this country again because those who are in charge of the running of government have lost control completely and all that everybody is interested in is money.
“They have seen government or politics as a business, so, they want to make money; it’s just like somebody who wants to maximize his or her profits. It does not matter whatever pain its customers or consumers are going through. That’s the scenario we have found ourselves in Nigeria today. Those in government are doing it as pure business and they are no longer interested in the welfare of Nigerians. If the government is serious to tackle it today, they will but they are not serious because they are part of it. All the military agents are part of it, the police are part of it. Otherwise, N100 million is not N100 that you just put into your pocket. How do they transport this money? How do they do all this without the government knowing?
“I am just saying they should leave men of God out of it. The prelate that is concerned doesn’t control the tithe of the church. For instance, I don’t control the money in my church. So, not every pastor has direct access to church money. But when they now make us objects of the target, It’s very dangerous. It’s like they want to kill all of us in this country and because we have no government to address the issue, they are just going about their normal political businesses. Just look at the way they are embezzling money, the Accountant General of the Federation stole N80 billion. Stealing billions in Nigeria is nothing to them. But we that don’t steal, they still target us and kidnap us. What do they want to get from us? We are the only one in this country that is bringing sanity and preaching to people for the peace of Nigeria and yet they are targeting us to get that type of money from us. This is very sad and we are not happy and we don’t have government.
“I can say it emphatically that this time around, we don’t have government and Nigeria needs to be holistically restructured so that Nigeria can work again. And they are kidnapping with impunity. Imagine Fulani people going about the West, North and South, kidnapping people and nobody is arresting them. What kind of government is this? Why are we budgeting money for the military and we are not seeing anything. The budget we give to the military is the highest and yet, we are not seeing corresponding results,”
Proffering solutions, the cleric said, “total restructuring of our security architecture will help this country a lot. They must be reorganised. We must have state police. Every state must be allowed to control its security atmosphere. But the Federal Government is disconnected from the reality at the state level. We must have state and community police,” he added.
A legal practitioner, Tunbosun Oladipupo also bemoaned insecurity situations in the country, insisting that “Buhari has failed woefully.”
For Oladipupo, it was obvious that the Federal Government has lost the battle against banditry, terrorism and rising kidnapping across the country adding that Nigerians have lost hope in the current dispensation saving them from further attacks.
He expressed assurance that Nigerians would vote out the ruling All Progressives Congress because it failed in delivering its core electoral promises of providing security and improving the economy.
“It’s obvious that Nigerians are no longer safe under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria. It’s so unfortunate that we can’t travel by road again without being kidnapped. Payment of ransom has been normalized because the kidnapping business is thriving. It’s needless to say that Buhari and all his handlers have failed Nigerians. APC has failed and I don’t see the party winning in any forthcoming elections. Our lives mean nothing to this present government and it’s very disturbing,” he said.
