By Yomi Odunuga
Dateline was mid-January, 2024 in one of the popular, high density suburbs of Abuja, Lugbe. The street was loudly silent and the pervasive anger was unmistakable. Yet, in that lonesome quietude, one could see faces ravaged by hunger and want collectively lamenting the unbelievable state of insecurity in Abuja. As these people came together to rejoice with one of their own whose daughter had just been graciously released by her ‘one chance’ abductors after the payment of N1.6m ransom, it was clear to them that Abuja, a city that prides itself as the Centre of Excellence, is anything but a safe haven for its inhabitants. With daily reports of brazen abductions, armed robbery, banditry, killings and all other forms of audacious criminal activities in the suburbs and city centre, the Federal Capital Territory continues to lose its charm and magnetic allure.
In this particular case, the lady in question had boarded a ‘painted’ taxi, presumably heading to Wuse Market, at the Police Bus Stop in Lugbe. In Abuja, painted taxis are considered the safest and reliable means of transportation because they can be traced in case of any eventuality. The movement was even delayed for some minutes as the driver waited for passengers to fill the available seats. The drama started few minutes after the driver left the park. It turned out that of the five passengers in the vehicle, only two were genuine. The other three and the driver were kidnappers who operate on that axis. They brought out guns and dangerous weapons, wound up the tinted glasses and demanded money from their victims after beating them up. But that was just the beginning of the story. After driving to a site where an Automated Teller Machine was located and the withdrawal of the funds from the two passengers’ accounts, the criminals took them to an unknown location and demanded they call family members to pay ransom before release. That was how the lady’s relative called some of us and the race to free her began in earnest. Now, don’t ask me if the police were informed because that would not serve any purpose in a situation where you were advised to pay first and leave the investigations of the crime to the competent officers. Negotiations over, the ransom was dropped in cash and the victim was released at a particular spot where she was later picked by her father. And, the next day, life continues until another tragic story of abduction breaks the ice as it always does.
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This account is but one in a series of distressing incidents tarnishing Abuja’s once peaceful ambiance. Victims endure dehumanization, thrown from moving vehicles, or become asphyxiated or fatally-stabbed targets of cold-blooded criminals. In other instances, victims had been used for ritual purposes while the authorities offer promises after promises to unravel the ‘perpetrators of the heinous act’ in perpetuity.
The descent into brazen callousness is exemplified by these criminals’ audacity to invade homes, abduct entire families, and demand millions in ransom, regardless of the families’ financial status. Pay up or witness the elimination of a family member, it is a gruesome game completely devoid of empathy.
Let’s look at some of the heart-rending stories. Though brought to a somewhat happy ending with five out of the six sisters abducted recently reunited with their family, the callous killing of a First Class graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar bears testimonial to the parlous state of security in the country. For failing to pay the N60m ransom demanded by the criminals from their father, Alhaji Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, Nabeeha was killed alongside three other victims from other families to demonstrate that the bandits would stop at nothing if the ransom was not paid on time. Till today, I still marvel at such level of banality. In the same Dutsen-Alhaji area of Abuja, a lawyer, Oladosu Folurunso Ariyo, had his teenage daughter, Michelle, murdered by her abductors when ransom was not paid on time. In another depressing tale, a gang of kidnappers murdered a nursing mother, Christiana Igba and her mother, Maria Agbo. They were abducted alongside a baby boy. Two weeks after Christiana’s husband, a police officer, failed to pay the ransom, she and her mother were killed and the baby boy, who had fallen sick in the kidnappers’ den, was given to another freed kidnap victim to hand over to the Igba’s family. Just on Tuesday, three brothers were abducted in Chikakore, Kubwa, Abuja. Two of the brothers are still with their abductors while the eldest brother was sent back to the family with a ransom notice. What audacity!!!
All these gory details happened in Abuja where the headquarters of key security agencies including the Office of the National Security Adviser were located. It is the same Abuja where the Presidency, the National Assembly and the Judiciary luxuriate in Aristocratic aplomb. But again, this is not just an Abuja thing. It has become a national phenomenon which has not been helped by a debilitating downturn of the economy. It is truly scary that what we are now dealing with is not just the activities of a gang of criminals who randomly abduct citizens on the roads in exchange for some thousands of naira. What we have in our hands is an implosion of a lucrative kidnap industry where gangs now slaughter children and send the bodies to family members in order to force them to pay or risk the deaths of the remaining relatives in their custody. What more can be devastating than this?
The authorities should be worried especially now that this dangerous practice is being extended to other parts of the country in which, during the week, two top traditional rulers in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti state, the Elesun of Esun, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin and Olumojo of Imojo, Oba Samuel Olatunji, were waylaid and killed in a failed kidnap attempt. Ironically, the traditional rulers were said to be coming from a meeting where they had gone to discuss matters relating to insecurity in Ogbe along Ipao-Irele-Oke Ako, a neighboring town in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi state. The ink was yet to dry on the monarchs’ murder when gunmen struck again in Eporo-Ekiti and abducted six pupils and three teachers of a private school and their bus driver. They have placed a whopping N100m as ransom. And, on Thursday evening, gunmen were said to have invaded Koro town in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, killing the traditional ruler, Oba Segun Aremu-Cole. They also abducted his wife and two others in the palace. Koro Ekiti, according to reports, shares boundary with Egbe, in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State. And the sickening tales keep unraveling by the day from Lagos to Ibadan, Kano to Maiduguri, Enugu to Owerri and Uyo to Bayelsa. We are, indeed, in a quandary.
Question is: What is the government doing to halt this sad, almost implacable menace? If you prod them, you would likely get some positive vibes about how the police killed and made some arrest. They will tell you that the armed forces have persistently penetrated their fortresses, bombed and demobilize terrorists and bandits, right from the days of President Goodluck Jonathan down to the time of President Muhammadu Buhari and till the present regime of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They will explain that funding is a major problem even when billions of dollars had been spent on the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other vices. They will delve into the core principles of kinetic and non-kinetic methodologies applicable to the war. But they would be mute on whether the funding was truly utilized for that purpose or whether the men on the filed get the right gadgets and the needed encouragement at the right time. A lot, I dare say, are shrouded in the books of bureaucratic rigmarole.
In spite of all the efforts, projections relating to the numbers of deaths in the last few months are not heartwarming. Latest records show that, since the inauguration of this government, not less than 2423 Nigerians have been killed while over 1872 people were abducted across the country. The report by the Global Rights, an international civil society organization, noted that insecurity remains a big challenge to any national growth especially now that families have resorted to “crowd funding for ransom to get their loved ones out of the dens of kidnappers. Road ambushes have made interstate travel more perilous. Reported incidents such as the abduction of 30 passengers near Katari along the Kaduna-Abuja highway and the kidnapping of 45 passengers in Orokam on the Benue-Enugu route underscore the gravity of the situation.”
This says a lot not just about the dire consequences of looking the other way while Nigeria bleeds, but it should be a clarion call for the government to pay more than a passing attention to the development. For years, the leadership has offered lame and tendentious excuses to justify the clear impotence by the relevant security agencies to tackle the menace headlong. Now that these gangs of blood-sucking scoundrels are poking their guns at us and daring the government to a fight at the market square, can those concerned afford to sit on their hands? For whatever it is worth, the government must take former Vice President Atiku Abubakar seriously when he says that “Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity.” That is the painful reality coming from the government’s arch political enemy. The opposition has offered his perspective and it does no one any good in engaging him in political gymnastics and attacks. Nigerians deserve better. And they want to see signs that something is being done to put an end to this affront by the marauders of their destiny and peace of mind. They just want to know when enough is visibly seen to be enough! They don’t need to wait on Godot for this. Or should they?