Category: Femi Macaulay

Oddly, the two kidnapped Nigerian journalists who regained their freedom after a week in captivity said nothing publicly about the identities of their abductors, and their experience as abductees.  

Their silence was striking because freed abductees usually had stories to tell about their abductors, and their ordeal in captivity. As journalists, they were, perhaps understandably, expected to provide insight into the incident. 

Suspected bandits abducted Abdulgafar Alabelewe of The Nation and AbdulRaheem Aodu of Blueprint from their homes in Kaduna, on July 7.  Alabelewe is the chairman of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council. Reports said his wife and two of his children were also kidnapped in that incident. 

 A statement by Rabiu Ibrahim, Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, quoted Alabelewe as saying “I never thought that within a week of our kidnap, we could get out. We are grateful that the government swung into action and ensured that we were released.” The question is: What happened within that week?

When the minister received the two journalists from the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, he observed that “The security agencies under the coordination of the NSA are working tirelessly to ensure that all those who have been taken into unlawful custody are freed without paying any ransom.” The NSA was reported saying the victims were rescued following a search and rescue operation by security agencies.

Curiously, neither the minister nor the NSA said anything about those who kidnapped the journalists.  Also, they gave no information about how the so-called rescue operation was carried out.

 To say the victims were “rescued” suggests that they were taken from their abductors. If that was the case, what happened to the abductors?  A rescue suggests physical action on the part of the rescuers.  If the abductors released the captives, possibly after the payment of ransom, that can’t be described as a rescue.

It’s a familiar picture. In March, for instance, the schoolchildren abducted from LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga, Kaduna State, regained their freedom after more than two weeks in captivity. The authorities said nothing about the kidnappers.

Initially, 287 schoolchildren were said to have been taken away by kidnappers.  But the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. Mayirenso Saraso, who handed the freed children over to Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani, on March 25, said “there were 137 children and one staff member, making 138 persons altogether that were abducted from the co-located schools.” According to him, the abducted schoolchildren were 76 females and 61 males, “making the total of 137.” Sadly, he said the kidnapped teacher died in captivity.

He also said the abducted Kuriga schoolchildren were “safely rescued,” adding that “it was through the sustained and coordinated application of both kinetic and non-kinetic efforts by the security agencies under the strategic guidance of…President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).”

Governor Sani was reported saying, “What is more important today is that our children are back home. Most of those permutations are not necessary. If your child is kidnapped, will you be sitting down and talking about how he was released? For me, what is more important is that those children are back home.”  But it was also important to clarify how the Kuriga abductees became free.  That never happened. 

The Federal Government is opposed to ransom payment, and insisted that ransom was not paid in that case. Idris asserted that the official position was that “ransom will not be tolerated. Ransom will not be encouraged; ransom will not be paid by the government.” He said the country’s security agencies would not reveal “their modus operandi,” adding that they were “evolving new strategies of getting out these criminal elements and ensuring that our children or anybody who is kidnapped for that matter, is brought back safely.”

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In January, two conflicting accounts further highlighted the question of ransom payment to kidnappers in Nigeria, and the question of rescue of kidnappees in the country. These issues came up yet again following the kidnapping of 23 persons, including five daughters and a niece of a civil servant, Mansur Al-Kadriyar, on January 2, in the Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). 

Bandits who invaded Al-Kadriyar’s residence, and abducted him and the girls, got away after an exchange of gunfire with the police. They later released him to look for money to get the girls released. They demanded N60m ransom. Impatient to receive the money, they killed one of the girls after about two weeks in captivity, and threatened to kill the others too if the ransom was not paid. The girl’s killing gave a troubling insight into the murderous desperation that drives desperadoes who kidnap for ransom. She was Nabeeha, 21, a final -year Biological Science student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

News of the girls’ ordeal on social media triggered a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for their release. The move to raise funds for ransom payment from the public through an online platform was unusual in the history of kidnapping in the country. The pathetic story of the Al-Kadriyar girls encouraged the option.

After the girls regained their freedom, the police gave the impression that ransom payment did not happen, attributing it to “a concerted effort” involving the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Anti-Kidnapping Squad and the Nigerian Army. “The operatives successfully rescued the victims around Kajuru forest in Kaduna State at about 11:30 pm on Saturday, January 20, 2024,” the police said in a statement.

But it turned out that the police had misrepresented what happened. The girls’ uncle, Abbas Al-Kadriyar, was reported saying, “We paid a ransom for the release of our girls. A ransom was paid, and the police were not involved.” His account: “The children called me, and I went to pick them up… The children were not rescued by anyone, the soldiers only assisted me in locating where they were and they provided cover for us.”

The police did not discredit this account from the Al-Kadriyar family.  Ransom payment by the family to get the girls freed contradicted the claim by the police that they were rescued from the kidnappers. Sadly, the bandits had killed four abductees, including Nabeeha, before 19 others regained freedom. It was unclear whether others also paid ransom, apart from the girls.

The case of the two journalists remains remarkable for their silence as well as the silence of the authorities. When the authorities are silent about kidnappers in kidnap cases in which kidnappees regain their freedom after the intervention of security agencies, it suggests that the kidnappers are at large, and may well strike again. That’s dangerous.