Sir: Today, two evils are rampant in the country, viz: banditry and kidnapping.
While banditry is ageless, kidnapping is a new evil festooned by societal escalating plights and growing societal decadence.
Whereas in the past many bandits had come out openly to renounce banditry and were given state pardon and reinvigorated back into the society, till date nobody has come to renounce kidnapping or show themselves as kidnappers.
Kidnapping has assumed a notorious dimension and since nobody or group of persons have been help culpable, this societal anomie has been on ascendancy. Homogous sum of money have been paid as ransom to secure the freedom of very important personalities trapped in the kidnappers den, while lots of ordinary victims were either killed or abandoned to die.
Kidnapping unlike banditry should not be a criminal war that Nigeria can afford to lose on the altar of judicial in expediency. Where are those arrested as kidnappers and what sort of punishments have been meted to them to serve as a deterrent to likely would be kidnappers?
In the 70s, armed robbery took the military at the jugular and many armed robbers were caught and publicly executed and there was a drastic decline. Kidnappers too must be seen in the mould of armed robbers who must also be treated as societal misfits.
The idea that justice delayed is not justice denial should not apply to kidnappers and bandits who having killed or brutalized their victims also enjoy delayed justice. Delayed justice also constitutes part of the reasons for the unresolved congestions in most of the correctional centres in the country.
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In the 70s, the military established special courts to deal with cases of armed robbery for prompt disposal. Such special courts may also be necessary as an antidote for speedy dispensation of justice of cases of kidnappers and bandits.
More awareness also need to be created to showcase the operational modes of kidnappers so that, personalities who oftentimes are the target of these kidnappers can take note of their operational tactics.
A cursory look at the age range of kidnappers shows that they are young people who probably have kingpins who lured them on basis of payment. Yet except uninformed parents who may be unaware of the series of advantages the government has provided for the education of the youths, there should no longer the feigning of ignorance by some youths taking to kidnapping on trite excuse of lack of opportunity for educational advancement.
Given the issues of loans to students engineered by this government, there is the urgency for the Ministry of Information through its National Orientation Agency (NOA) to embark on series of campaigns aimed at sensitizing the society to seize the opportunity provided by the government to send their children or wards to school.
No matter what, good education has the tendency for redefining rustic and bucolic mind-sets. The war on kidnapping is wagging too long and this shouldn’t be if culprits are disposed off rapidly through speedy of justice.