The Senate President, David Mark, has called for declaration of state of emergency in states where kidnapping has refused to cease.
Mr. Mark made the call following debates on a motion on the rising wave of insecurity in the country. The promoter of the motion, Anthony Manzo (PDP Taraba), said the trend is orchestrated by rising incidents of kidnappings and assassinations “The way I see it, if we can declare a state of emergency on power we should declare a state of emergency on this kidnapping and robbery that is going on,” said Mr. Mark. “The federal government has really declared a state of emergency to get power back, federal government should as well declare a state of emergency in all these areas where we have armed robbery and kidnapping.” He added that the state of emergency does not necessarily mean the removal of the governors of the affected states but would bring a closer attention to the issue. “Kidnapping and the armed robbery that is going on in this country is doing more harm to this country than HIV/AIDS than malaria, because it is taking us to a level where sooner or later, people will begin to fear coming in into Nigeria,” he added.
The senate president also argued for the modification of the Rule of Law to effectively curb the crime describing the kidnapping states as “jungle environment.” “I think those who are involved must be handle in such a way that they will never contemplate it again in life, because at the moment they are being handled with kid glove, people are not serious with the way it is being handled, presently it is simply a jungle environment and rule of law must change to conform to deal with those who operate in jungle environment and I believe that the law enforcement agent should be able to do that,” he said.
Treacherous police
The senators, while arguing the motion, also accused the police of perfidy and double dealing in the in the efforts to curb the rising spate of kidnapping in Nigeria. Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP Abia state) whose senatorial zone ranks highest on the Nigerian kidnapping index said police officers leak information and disclose identity of informants to kidnappers thereby jeopardising their information gathering ability.
He narrated an incident in his constituency where a traditional ruler was brutally murdered few days after he gave out information to the police about kidnappers in his kingdom. “That has made most people to be very careful of giving information to the police for fear of the repercussion,” Mr. Abaraibe said. “The more this continues to happen, the more people lose faith in government and it will result to anarchy.” Civil society organizations have in the past also accused the police of perfidy in the Boko Haram mayhem of last year. “We need to develop a program to protect informants,” Adeleke Mamorah (AC Lagos state) said. He argued the crime is thriving because of lack of information.
Worsening situation
The senate, at about this day last year, met behind closed doors with security and intelligence chiefs in the national assembly over the same matter. The meeting followed a similar motion on 8 July last year, with similar resolutions “urging” the federal government to curb the crime. “The unfortunate thing with this (last year’s motion) is that things have changed for the worst.” The senate president, David Mark said. Between July last year and yesterday, the incidents of kidnapping and assassinations in Nigeria has surged, placing Nigeria eight on the global index of kidnapping nations, alongside Columbia, Mexico and Venezuela.
However, rather than call for stringent measures to curb the crime or call for the resignation of security chiefs for failing in their duties, the senate carefully avoided suggestions alluding to that.
The senate resolved to organise a summit where stakeholders – including delegates from Mexico and Columbia – would meet to share their experience about kidnapping. The senate also condemned the kidnappings and urged the security officials to fish out and prosecute the criminals behind the recent kidnap of journalists in Abia state.
Blame police commissioners
While avoiding blames for the Inspector General of the police, the senate president called for the resignation of police commissioners in whose state kidnapping thrives. “There is no reason where a Commissioner of Police should be sitting on his seat if there is kidnapping and armed robbery on daily basis on his seat,” the senate president said. “It means he has failed. It is their primary responsibility and he must be told in very clear term that he failed to handle the situation. If a man failed he should not remain on the seat there for us to be getting excuses from him.”