•I want govt to deploy technology to end insecurity, says Ejiofor
•‘There’s compromise among security agents, locals, bandits’
Kidnapping, according to many, now leads among reported criminal cases in today’s Nigeria. The huge monetary gains the culprits enjoy from crime, security experts say, have made it more lucrative than the hitherto dreaded armed robbery. ISIOMA MADIKE, reports
Kidnapping, no doubt, is now widespread and has become very lucrative in Nigeria. The frequency with which people are captured is fuelled by the huge pecuniary gains.
This monetary gain and failure of the nation’s security operatives to arrest and promptly punish offenders have made it a very lucrative ‘business’.
The entire Nigerian landscape is today under the siege of abductors as nearly every part of the country has suffered from the menace in recent times. But it has not always been so.
The word was alien to both Nigeria and Nigerians until the failed 1984 abduction of former Second Republic Minister of Transport, Umaru Dikko, when it found space in Nigeria’s criminal lexicon. Since then, kidnapping has become an everyday occurrence in the country with dire consequences.
It has become commonplace in northern Nigeria where armed gangs target schools and rural communities, often overwhelming local security forces. This has piled pressure on the government, forcing the President, Bola Tinubu, to declare a national emergency on insecurity.
A security expert and former Director, Department of State Service (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, is of the opinion that the spike is due, mainly due to the ember season. Towards the end of the year, he said, the criminals target people who want to collect money for the celebration of Christmas and end of the year.
Ejiofor also said that the criminals’ intentions might be political as they would want to make the government unpopular, to bring the government to its knees and make people lose confidence in those in power. “And due to economic reasons, people are going to cry. So, all these things are responsible for the upsurge or the spike in kidnappings, or mass kidnappings.
“It’s sad that we found ourselves in a situation where people are always trying to raise money for the bandits, who mastermind the rampant abductions. “And because they are part of the terrorist groups, their agenda is to instill fear into the people. I think those are basically the reasons for the spike. “What I know is that the government is against ransom payment. But, what baffles one is why the same government is reluctant to arrest those taking ransoms,” Ejiofor said.
He added: “Kidnapping is a major problem. The most disturbing aspect is the killing of the victims. Before now, they were just kidnapping people and collecting ransom. But now, we’ve seen some cases where they kill after collecting ransom. It’s a big emergency. “However, I will support the use of technology against this criminality. It has been discovered from research that technology deployment and adaptation are important in the fight against abductions and armed banditry.
“So, we need the involvement of technology, the deployment of technology as well as the cooperation of the people. We also need to train our security personnel. Funding is most important because without funding nothing can be accomplished. That’s important. “More importantly, we need to be careful with social media con- tents; we have to scrutinise what we believe on social media.
So many narratives have turned out to be untrue, and that is dangerous. Don’t forget that these criminals thrive on propaganda.” Another security expert, who declined to be named, blamed what he called the government insincerity in tackling this issue in the past. He stated that at the core of the nation’s insecurity was allowing Boko Haram, banditry and general unrest to fester for too long.
He said: “Kidnapping has replaced robbery in the criminal landscape because people hardly carry cash about; the criminals would rather kidnap for ransom, which has been a major problem in Nigeria. “It is escalating in Nigeria because the country’s economic crisis is driving a rise in kidnappings as desperate Nigerians turn to crime for income.
“And in tackling this, both military and paramilitary must come together to improve and enhance their inter-synergy to effectively tackle this menace and the other types of insecurity the nation is battling with.” The security expert said that only teamwork can liberate Nigeria from the menace. He added that recognition of the local/domestic intelligence, which are the local vigilantes, working with them can also give tips and other information about suspicious behaviour to uncover who might be involved and for what purposes.
He added: “This issue of kidnapping should not be seen from the political angle alone, rather as a matter that needs urgent attention. “It is time the Federal Government of Nigeria involved experts in this area, to give the government adequate advice in bringing this problem to an end.
“The traditional rulers should also be co-opted because they know more about their domains and make themselves accessible to information. The degree of insecurity in Nigeria is unprecedented. “The government should buy more visible equipment for the military rather than the ones that it has been purchasing on paper. “In Nigeria, insecurity is a critical issue that has hampered industrialisation and sustainable development.”
However, a top police officer at the Criminal Investigation Department, who craves anonymity, “blamed commercial bank officials for conniving with suspected kidnappers by aiding and abetting the activities of the suspected hoodlums to sail through the banking hall.”
The officer also accused some security agencies of abandoning their jobs by seeking gratifications from suspected kidnappers during ‘stop and search routine’ and during ransom negotiations. A retired Naval Officer blamed parents and guardians, saying they failed to bring up their children in a proper way.
He lamented that most of the youth that are into yahoo-yahoo would soon graduate to become kidnappers. The officer maintained that kidnapping became more lucrative owing to its tripartite beneficiaries. He listed the kidnappers, the middlemen, who play the insider-game or the gate-keeper in the bank, and the victims.
He said in some cases, the victims are the beneficiary, and he or she shares from the booty because he or she brought the job and allowed himself or herself to be abducted for ransom.
“In most instances, there’s compromise among security agents, locals, bandits. They do this as a business and it’s booming for them. The boys are just laughing to their banks.
“They don’t need to carry guns to look for N100 million to N500 million. Through mere telephone calls, they become richer than politicians, and become millionaires overnight.”
A Clinical Psychologist, Chiamaka Egwu, has a different perspective to the issue. Egwu said that sociological problems in Nigeria are the main reason for the increase in kidnapping.
She explained to our reporter that unemployment, economic hardship and rising poverty was responsible for the increase of kidnapping. According to her, kidnapping business is seen as less risky than armed robbery enterprise, and is lucrative with very little stress compared to armed robbery.
She said: “The problem is sociological. What I mean is that unemployment, economic hardship and rising poverty, among others, have made kidnapping a lucrative business. “Although it is risky, the risk in kidnapping is less than that of armed robbery and kidnapping is very lucrative.”
Egwu identified right security tactics and strategies as important as well as the establishment of State police. Other solutions include but not limited to “establishment of Neighborhood Watch, motorised, fixed and mobile security, quality intelligence gathering, inter agency collaboration and being proactive instead of being reactive.”
