The news of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, coming home alive was a good one to all of us, as it is not unusual to hear that kidnappers have killed their victims even when ransom was paid.
The act of kidnapping for ransom is now an all-too-common crime in Nigeria and in the case of Falae, as soon as the news of his kidnap reached the authorities, the police under the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, followed with an immediate action. This instant action by the police was reportedly being carried out way before President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Arase to rescue Falae. To his professional credit, Arase remained in the area as the police worked on the case.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Falae showed up and the IG and his officers apparently rushed to the scene where the former was present. Then, something terrible happened—a fat and full blown lie was told about this case by the police, according to the media.
Arase, while with Falae who is a 77-year-old man, already traumatised, in crisis, and very hungry, told the men and women of the press that no ransom had been paid to Falae’s abductors and apparently spoke in a manner as if the police had rescued the victim.
To worsen this painful matter, the police knew nothing about Falae’s kidnap location and time of release until he, who had been a hostage for some days, was dropped off by the kidnappers on his farm. From there, he trekked several kilometres to the street where he met some policemen and introduced himself!
In other words, the police categorically did not rescue this man from the kidnappers and were not armed with details of the release as of the time they went to the press.
This is not the first time the Nigeria Police would twist stories of successful rescues from kidnappers, as in the recent case of Dr. Femi Omisore, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, who was one of several persons kidnapped in Ekiti State. Seyi Olaoluwa, a daughter of Dr. Femi Omisore, reported to the world that the police lied to the public. She stated that ransom was paid for her father’s freedom.
Not long ago, there was the case of the formerly kidnapped Archbishop of the Niger Delta Province of the Anglican Communion, Ignatius Kattey, who, in his own words, said, “The police did not rescue me. They were not the ones who rescued my wife, Beatrice. I saw the police for the first time two days ago since the incident.”
While it remains understandable that Nigeria is still a developing society with an emerging democracy, it is time for our all-too-wide police structure which, in fact, should have long been broken into state police system, to learn to practise common sense procedural behaviours when dealing with the media.
For the purpose of police excellence in communication with the press and the public, the police should learn about press response, emergency media response especially.
They must learn and be ready to react quickly and honestly in terms of handling and adjusting to a hungry media by having a prepared honesty-based, fact-full response before going public, because when media handling goes wrong, the end product is a shame of mockery on the ailing institution, in this case, the Nigeria Police.
No matter how urgently a leader wants to assert himself or herself and gain instant name recognition and popularity, and no matter the nature of the circumstances in terms of emergency or non-crisis dealings, one should always give the facts correctly, learn to review the facts with one’s team and such facts must align fully with the central source, as in this case, Falae.
The media can always wait for a few minutes or hours for a proper and honest briefing by the police but when information is revealed from the points of sentimentality, a popularity contest and selfishness, major mistakes are made that could jeopardise one’s image, as in the case of the police leadership.
Certainly, Arase was attempting to be very proactive when he made statements about the end product of the kidnap matter. However, since he did not show patience to get the real facts, Falae’s later disclosures to the world crushed the police’s story in an overwhelming way.
By the police not understanding how to go about dealing with crisis communication in terms of responding to a hungry media, they ended up hammering more devastating blows on a man who was already exhausted physically, emotionally and even financially, as money was paid to the kidnappers.