By Iranloye Sofiu Taiye

The excruciation ravaging the fabric of our state at this juncture is ludicrous, absurd, and preposterous. It cannot be considered a hyperbolic assertion to proclaim that nowhere is safe again in Nigeria, considering the high rate of unprecedented crimes and havoc that have wrecked and jeopardized the protection of life and properties of the armless citizens across the nooks and crannies of the country, including and not limited to; killings, kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, armed robbery and lots more.

Tragically no geopolitical zone is shielded from the heinous activities perpetrated by these hardened criminals and terrorists. The focus of the federal government was previously in the North East and North Western parts of the country to counter terrorism involving the deadly activities of Boko Haram, ISWAP, armed foreign Jihadists, and banditry. A modicum degree of impressive victories was recorded by the counter-terrorism joint task force comprising of the Nigerian military personnel, men of the Nigeria Police, and combined forces of Niger and Chad which have thwarted the rampant invasion and bombing of communities by these terrorists.

However, the menace of insecurity has taken another arch in Nigeria which is now kidnapping. Though, it is frowning that the cases of kidnapping have been reported in every part of the country. From abduction of foreign professionals working on oil fields, to kidnapping of Journalists, Chibok school girls abduction and others. It was reported that huge ransom were paid in all this cases for their release. Pitifully, kidnapping has now metamorphosed into carnage, murder, slaying, and slaughtering of innocent citizens for corrupt financial aggrandizement through the abduction of armless citizens and coercing their families, associates, friends, and government to pay humongous ransoms to secure release, the devoid which often led to killings of the captives. This menace has now left nowhere to be deemed safe across the states and local governments of the country, even Abuja the Federal Capital Territory which would supposedly be considered safer considering the military architecture and hardware stationed around the city have been consumed by the activities of these kidnappers.

It’s very disheartening that everyone is their target including; children, business moguls, civil servants, politicians, academics, Professors, Doctors, and even our traditional rulers are not out of their prey. The news circulating about the cold murder of a final year student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria who was kidnapped alongside her siblings in the heart of Abuja city recently after the family could not meet up the payment of #60 million ransom was disastrous not only to the family but the state entirely. Sadly, the kidnapper has also threatened to kill the other children if the ransom increased from #60 million to #100 million naira is not paid. The former minister of communication and digital economy Professor Ali Pantami is currently under media trial and public opinion court for his audacity in publicly rallying his associates to raise the ransom to secure other children who are still in the den of the kidnapper.

This recent remark of the former minister has triggered concern about whether it is legally right to pay ransom to kidnappers or not. Yes, there’s no gain saying that family members, friends, and even the government have at one time or the other secured the release of captives through payments of ransom. Paradoxically, the Nigeria law criminalized the payment of ransom for kidnappers because of its enormous consequences that will strengthen, aid and reinforce insecurity. Exclusively, the Nigerian police and other security/intelligence agencies are those who must go after the kidnapper to safely secure the release of any captives and apprehend the kidnapper for prosecution accordingly. With all sense of sincerity, it’s a fact that our security and intelligence agencies are capable of rescuing captives from Kidnapper dens without paying any ransom if they mean business.

Notwithstanding, the bigger question is, how do kidnappers always utilize a registered mobile SIM card, linked with NIN, remains on the shore of the country to communicate and negotiate ransom deals with the family or relatives of their captive, and yet the security and intelligence agencies could identify them or track them down?, or the security operatives are confronted with the problem of inadequate manpower, substandard hardwares, and softwares to carry out this task which is very critical to their establishment? In a bid to profer an answer to the above questions, someone may conclude that there are snitches and sabotage among our security personnel who always feed this criminals with vital information that kept undermining their efforts to counter kidnapping. Glaringly, these constitutes the major reason why citizens resolve to pay the ransom to save the lives of their beloved. These worrisome perception have made the people to lose the trust in our security agencies

The overall consequences of paying ransom on our socio-political and economic stability are colossal. No doubt paying the ransom is likened to empowering the kidnappers to acquire more sophisticated weapons and arms, of which the consequences will be catastrophic and detrimental. It exposes the life and properties of armless citizens to danger, It projects the country unsafe for foreign direct investments and tourism, also, the negative economic fallouts are monumental for Nigeria to bear, especially now when we’re grappling with inflation, the exchange rate crisis, and economic instability. Imagine the economic boosts an estimated whooping sum of #800 million used to pay ransom to kidnappers alone in the last quarter of 2023 would have driven if injected into the small-scale enterprises.

Since the consequences of this criminal surge are evident, the consciousness of our communities is critical. The government should create a strong communication link between the security agencies and the citizens to promote intelligent gathering and timely reports of any pessimistic, suspicious, or wary movement/activities within our communities to the nearest police station. Strengthen community policing and neighborhood vigilantes to assist the police.

However, the subsequent nabbed of a notorious kidnapper in Abuja on the 18th of January has substantiated our belief in our security personnel in their fight against kidnapping. I will implore the government also to keep supporting the security veterans with every necessary logistics to sustain this tempo, and my appeal to the security personnel is to step up their performance and fully utilize their expertise to protect the lives and properties of the armless citizens which was what you swore an oath to live up to.