TRIBUNE
SAM NWAOKO
Today’s thoughts are centered on the real kidnappers whose activities are giving the country the ugly names. We should first agree on the ground rule that in Nigeria, kidnapping for ransom is a bigger crime finely wrapped in a euphemism that shields powerful, dangerous and heartless criminals. The real kidnappers are those connected, rich-boss criminals to whom the active, hands-on, errand-boy kidnappers talk about and often report to. They are not in the association of poor kidnappers of Nigeria. The real kidnappers are those faceless kingpins who are the untouchable pivots of a dark cartel of deadly criminals. They are the senior bad men who unleash equally bad and malleable men they call ‘boys’ on the beleaguered population. They snoop around and sometimes, like the happy dog, even frisk their targets and then cause them to be abducted often at gun point. They subject them to unwholesome experiences and receive huge sums of money for the freedom of their victims.
The victims buy their freedom at a high price. It is always a costly deal because in many instances, they leave death, sorrow, tears and blood as their monuments. It’s almost always unbearable to be in the harrowing position of kidnap victims. The real kidnappers actually don’t care so long as their expendable boys deliver. These criminals can kidnap anything or cause anyone to be kidnapped. The kidnapping kingpins also have the capacity to remove any obstacle in their way, including their conscience, morality and justice, because they often have potent drugs, sophisticated weapons, and the requisite financial arsenal – another very potent agent of inducement.
Two scenarios created by victims from their real life experiences have always been living rent-free in my head. They are part of the valuables I acquired in my journey through Ekiti State as a journalist. During that patch of my journalism sojourn, I heard things that made me conclude that successful kidnap episodes don’t just happen, they are well planned and the gamut well designed from the crude to its finest details. If there is a snag in the run of the adventure, chances are that a weak link in the chain has snapped.
The first one was the experience of a cleric, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti. He was serving as the Parish Priest of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, Ido-Ekiti when abductors snatched him from his room at the parish house in the night of June 9, elated 2015. The trauma of a priest suddenly coming face to face with three armed men in your cloister, is shuddering. It is demeaning enough that he was a free meal for the abductors who had gone to the church with the sole aim of kidnapping him. Then, picture the event of snatching him from his room from where he was led into the forest where he was kept on a cold damp floor, blindfolded! While in this state, they left him with an armed guard – to his thoughts and to his fate – while they sought to milk the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti their expected ransom. This came to the fore when Father Akingbade relived his experience after his release.
On June 16, 2015, Father Akingbade regained his freedom. Bishop Felix Ajakaye appeared the happier man. In his relief, he let newsmen into his thoughts regarding the experience as well as some of the things the criminals told him. It could be inferred from what the bishop said that kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria has a deeper root than the activities of the gun-wielding ‘boys’ that physically carry out the crime. He said the people he was speaking with on the kidnap told him that they were just errand boys, and that their bosses, their puppeteers were somewhere in the big cities. Most Reverend Ajakaye told equally elated newsmen that they demanded N200 million for his release that he told them that he had no such money. “They threatened that they would kill him and I told them that on the day he was ordained, he had sacrificed himself. They asked me how much we could afford; I said even one kobo we cannot afford.” Father Akingbade just strolled into the embrace of his Bishop and jubilation of many in the morning of June 16, after 6 days in captivity. Father Akingbade found favour with God.
Senator Ayo Arise also found favour with God. He said so himself at a thanksgiving Mass at SS Peter and Paul Catholic Pro-Cathedral in his native Oye-Ekiti to thank God he got out of kidnappers’ den alive and well. Arise completed his tenure as a Senator representing Ekiti North between 2007 and 2011. His CV got a fresh page due to his violent abduction in December 2017. This ugly incident has been added to the list of his earthly experiences. After the Mass, he was able to tell just a little of his ‘forest journey’ with his abductors. He was still shaken from the experience while he spoke because, among other things, he was not disposed to freely speak on his ordeal and his assailants. “Someone was kidnapped and was still killed after paying N25million ransom twice. So, how do you describe that?”
However, he said his abductors collected N20million from him as ransom and that he told them that was a handsome amount to start a legitimate business. Senator Arise thought he was speaking with his real kidnappers. He was shocked when the ‘boys’ told him that they were just errand boys in the ‘business’. “I told them to take up legitimate businesses after collecting this kind of money. They said it was their bosses in Abuja that actually take the money; that they only get something small.” That was the basis upon which he said that he was in doubt if the menace would stop. “They have tasted blood and it has become very very dangerous.”
Who are these real kidnappers? Why have they been so elusive? Post-Evans, what lessons have we learnt as a people? Who would think that states bordering Abuja will be unsafe while Abuja would be immune to what these states are suffering? Whoever thinks like that will easily pass for an ignoramus. The tension in Nigeria’s federal capital is an aftertaste of what has been happening in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa and other states of the country. Like Arise stated, it is a booming business for those who have the mind to swim in that very dangerous waters. Sadly, it looks like it is engulfing us and it doesn’t look good for Nigeria.
The president has assured us that he would crush kidnappers and “agents of darkness”. Senator Shehu Sanni asked, tongue in cheek, “is he talking about the DISCOs?” That should be noted too, even if it appears like a joke. The experience of Al-Kadiriyar family is the new metaphor in the fright that has overtaken our society. The Fisrt Lady, Oluremi Tinubu has cried out and we hope that her husband will listen to her cry and take drastic steps against the menacing danger. President Tinubu must look beyond the ‘boys’ and sift properly to identify the real kidnappers. The men must be separated from the boys for there to be peace.
The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru recently lashed out at those raising funds to pay for the ransom demanded by kidnappers to free their abducted children and other loved ones. Badaru says the payment makes the situation worse. Crowdfunding and such things to raise the huge ransom demanded by these criminals would widen the greed of the criminals and embolden other ones, the minister contended. He is right. However, the embattled families are also right to seek ways of getting their children freed from such despicable shackles. Badaru might acknowledge that the situation is bad, but has he acknowledged the failure of government to secure the citizens? No. That has been overlooked because the children of the rich and powerful are all ensconced in their various safe places.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN TRIBUNE
