Robin Hood, a legendary mediaeval outlaw, reportedly stole from the rich who passed through his Sherwood Forest hideout to give to the poor. He unwittingly played the (albeit rogue) invisible hand that economist Adam Smith suggests redistributes the wealth of nations. While Robin Hood could be described as sort of altruistic, the kidnappers that range over the Nigerian society are outright criminals. Their conduct could hardly pass as “robin hoodesque.”
That the kidnapping unleashed on Nigerians is now endemic is to state the obvious. It started innocuously from the kidnap of expatriates who work in the oil fields of the Niger Delta region. The initial claim of the perpetrators was the righting of labour and environmental degradation wrongs of the oil industry. It turned out that horror was in their intention, and ploy to extort money.
Matter eventually progressed (or regressed?) into the cruel abduction of relatives of prominent public office holders, like the mother of the immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Later, actors, like Pete Edochie, relations of journalists, like the wife of Steve Nwosu, Deputy Managing Director of The Sun newspaper, and even columnists, like Donu Kogbara of Vanguard, became victims.
No one is spared; even monarchs and suckling babes have joined the ranks of kidnap victims. You should have no doubts that the unfortunate Chibok girls, now missing for more than 530 days, are kidnap victims. They couldn’t have been willing escorts, considering that they were taken away while sitting for their final senior secondary school exams. Many of their parents have died of heartbreak.
Despite the worldwide attention and outrage, that enlisted America’s First Lady Michelle Obama, the Chibok girls are still missing. There have been some evil reports that many of them have become sex slaves, may have been married off to some perverse old men, or brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers.
In the past, kidnapping in Nigeria was almost limited to abduction of kids, which probably explains the Yoruba terminology, “gbomogbomo,” or child abductors. Kids in Lagos of the 1960s and 1970s were sternly warned by parents and guardians to avoid neighbourhoods like Papa Ajao, now host to the booming Ladipo Spare Parts Market, Oshodi, and Coker Village, near today’s Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
The law books say that kidnapping is the act of knowingly or recklessly abducting or enticing a child under the age of 18 from the custody of a parent, guardian, or other lawful custodian. It is also the seizing and taking away of a person by force or fraud from his place of residence, business, or unlawful confinement in isolation for a substantial period of time for a ransom.
Other acts of kidnapping are intention to facilitate the commission of a felony, inflict bodily injury, and terrorise the victim. But at common law, kidnapping is forcibly abducting a person from his country and sending him to another country. The attempt by the Muhammdu Buhari military government to cargo Second Republic politician, Umaru Dikko, from Britain to Nigeria is probably in this ballpark. Aggravated kidnapping is accompanied by injury to the victim.
When it involves demand for a ransom, kidnapping becomes a capital offence. Kidnapping is usually considered a first degree felony, but becomes a second degree felony only if the defendant had voluntarily released the victim at a safe place. This ass of a law even provides an escape for these rascals.
This kidnapping thing has come close to home, as a cousin was abducted towards the end of last year. Nearly everyone in the extended family had to ante up to secure his release from his abductors. After the money changed hands, he was left somewhere on the outskirts of town, unhurt.
The eternally humorous fellow still regales family and friends with hilarious stories of his tragi-comedic encounter with the evil horde. His is a testimony that a great sense of humour can be a life-saver, even in the hands of hoodlums. Some of the reasons for which people are kidnapped in Nigeria are ransom, money-making rituals, hostage especially of robbery victims, vendetta, and settling of business or personal scores turned awry.
Tony Oroyetan, speaking in the all-female morning television programme, submits that kidnapping must be treated as an aspect of terrorism. He adds that kidnapping, that now happens almost on a daily basis, is more lucrative and easier than armed robbery. All you need is a network of informants, a hideout, and (maybe) a telephone.
He then argues that because the kidnappers usually get in touch with the families of their victims through telephone calls, telecommunications companies should use their GPRS facilities to help trace the calls, and thus locate the hideouts of the kidnappers. He however suggests a hard thing — that the families of kidnap victims should not negotiate with or pay to the kidnappers, but swiftly report to the police. The poor record of the police on this score hardly inspires such an attitude.
Oroyetan observes that once a gang of kidnappers, that operates more in the Niger Delta and South-East zones of Nigeria, records a success, they are encouraged to kidnap another person. He avers that being rich or employed does not prevent a person from engaging in the dastardly act. But he cautions that Nigerians should live modestly and not attract kidnappers by extravagant or lavish lifestyles.
It is no longer news that those who kidnapped Chief Olu Falae, a former Minister for Finance and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, were Fulani herdsmen on a revenge mission. Falae revealed that he had, in the recent past, obtained relief and compensation, through the police, from herdsmen whose cattle had destroyed crops on his farm in a quest to drink water from the dam on his farm.
Falae, who however had no idea how much was paid to his abductors, revealed that money did change hands. He recalled that his abductors intermittently threatened to kill him if the money was not enough. They’d say “Baba, we are going to kill you if you don’t give us (enough) money,” and he would reply, almost in a sing song, “Insha Allah, you will not kill me.” One of the kidnappers was reported to have lapsed into a Freudian slip, and wondered aloud if the money raised at a time would be enough to fund Boko Haram activities.
This raises the question as to whether the Boko Haram insurgents have been using kidnap tactics to raise money to finance their activities. You will agree it could be a clever way to cover trails of their financial transactions. The Department of State Services and the military intelligence must explore this theory. Some Yoruba leaders are justifiably reading political meanings into the Falae kidnap.
But beyond the Nigeria Police inability to discharge its statutory responsibilities to secure lives and property, is its brazen capacity to lie. Whereas Falae trekked several kilometres to town after he was dumped on his farm by his abductors, the police acted as if they were responsible for freeing Falae-and without paying any ransom!
The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, who personally denied that ransom was paid for Falae’s release, and acted as if his men achieved the feat, is too decent a gentleman to be spinning a yarn.