In Nigeria today, the fear of kidnappers is the beginning of wisdom for most prominent Nigerians and their immediate families. But in recent times, the abduction trend has taken a more frightening dimension as nobody is free from the onslaught of kidnappers. Social status or how much wealth one controls just does not count anymore as long as the person is abode or a-visiting the country. His vulnerability to the wiles of the kidnappers who may just be lurking around the corner, is not in question. Due largely to successive occurrence which in many cases, left no trace of the abductors but caused huge sums of ransom money to change hands, Nigerians have now found themselves in a frenzy looking for a solution to escape the menacing clutches of the kidnapers.
From Abuja the nation’s seat of power to Lagos, the pioneer seat of power and the nation’s commercial fort, through the South-South states of Edo, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers and Delta states, where kidnappers first found their way into the country’s criminal lexicon, to the South-Eastern states of Imo, Anambra, Abia, Enugu, and Ebonyi states which tend to have overtaken the South-South in kidnapping notoriety, as well as the South-Western states and all the states of the North and North Central, incidents of kidnapping which at a time became a daily occurrence, have reverberated all across the land.
As it were, there is no hiding place from their dragnet once they set their eyes on any person. Not even the contracted protection of the law enforcement agents or refuge in Holy sanctuaries have been able to safeguard victims of kidnappers. As a result the latest trend for most Nigerians who can afford it is to get gun carrying mobile police men to permanently guard them and members of their immediate families. In some states mobile police men are seen guarding individual members of families, on a 24 hour basis. As long as the Nigerian can afford it mobile police men would be at their beck and call.
In Edo State for instance, after the recent kidnapping of the chairman of the state’s Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, mass hysteria has continued to grip residents as kidnapping and other criminal activities have continued unabated, leaving residents of the City to resort to self help, while politicians and socialites troop to Police Command in a scramble for police protection.
For those who can afford it, a retinue of mopol (an acronym for mobile police) always serves them as escorts to churches, mosques, market places, parties and offices, to the detriment of the general security needs of the public. More worrisome is the inadequate police personnel to effectively police the state with the growing security challenges, while others were said to have parted with huge sums of money to get police protection.
Though the initial attention of kidnappers was focused on oil workers/expatriates, now the story has changed. People from all works of life have not been spared from trauma. Few months ago, two kidnap cases were recorded in Edo State – Nath Inegbedion, Ekpoma branch chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, alongside his three children at Ekpoma; and Ganiyu Abubakar, deputy director in the Federal Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, were kidnapped, alongside Abubakar’s driver, between Auchi and Ekpoma.
The incident of the Ekpoma Branch chairman of NBA came barely forty-eight hours after the abduction of Abubakar, who was said to be on his way to Benin to represent the Minister of Agriculture at the just concluded Annual Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria which held in the Edo State capital, Benin City.
Measures embarked up on by the state government have not yielded the much anticipated result owing largely to the deployment of police personnel to politicians and money bags that can afford their services.
LEADERSHIP weekend visited the Edo State Police command to ascertain the veracity of the speculation that majority of its men have been drafted to protect private individuals as against the earlier announcement that such exercise must be discontinued.
An impeccable police source who doesn’t want his name in print expressed surprise at the rate individuals are being attacked with policemen even when as there is a threat to general security
He said “We are faced with a serious situation of shortage in personnel and equipment to adequately work with. Look at our checkpoints, you hardly find our men after a particular period of time. Why won’t kidnapping strive? Knowing fully well that security at all points is porous. This ‘so call’ money bags that come here to lobby for personal police protection don’t mean well for the citizens of this state”
The Edo State police image maker, who was unavoidably absent could not be reach for comments on the growing security challenges in the state. However, a police source who volunteered to comment said the police authority is on top of the situation
“The story that Police only send their men to protect politicians is not true; Because the new commissioner has come to fight kidnapping. One of the strategies he has adopted to tackle this menace, is the posting of police men to other divisions to enhance the efficiency of the force. Most check points now in the state have been fortified to combat kidnapping”
We all know that kidnapping cannot be eradicated, it can only be reduced to a barest minimum. It is a global problem, and the police is working to ensure that the trend is curbed. The coming of commissioner Emmanuel Udeoji has helped reduce kidnapping. So it not true that our men provide security to only those that can afford it.
He however stated that, except for the governors and their deputies no other persons are entitled to personal security describing such as illegal, ” local government chairmen are not entitle to police protection”. Those police men attached to local government council chairmen are doing illegal business and that is what the new police commissioner is fighting.
In Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital, the story is the same. The governor launched a joint military task force which was able to curtail crime in the state for some time. The story is different now in Akwa Ibom state where the people live in fear and trepidation occasioned by the renewed upsurge of abductions and hostage taking for money. The relatively peaceful state is now under the tight grip of kidnappers who appear to be very difficult nut for the security agencies to crack.
The state government has done all within it’s powers through provision of equipment and logistics to assist the police and other security agencies in order to curb the menace of criminals in the state. But the problem still persists as citizens mostly, the wealthy became the target of this unwholesome act.
Things are no longer the same in the oil rich state as the wealthy and well- to-do business men, politicians, captain of industries now prefer being cocooned in the confines of their abode and only to venture out under heavy disguise for fear of being abducted. One noticeable feature of this trend is that most high ranking Government official who are potential targets of kidnappers are well protected by the Mobile police unit who follow them every where with heavy arms. Those who could not be covered by the police benevolence resorted to engaging private security outfit for protection.
Also, the price of Alsatian dogs has skyrocketed in recent times because, it is believed that with a fierce looking Alsatian dog to contend with, a potential kidnapper will think twice before making a break into the home of the big men.
The unfortunate abduction of retired General, Akpan a former director of NYSC, late February