It should qualify as one of the craziest abductions in recent memory. Armed men numbering about 20, according to eyewitnesses, stormed two houses in Kaduna in the wee hours of Sunday and whisked away the editor of a Kaduna-based Hausa newspaper, Al-Mizan, Mallam Mohammed Awwal, and his reporter, Mallam Aliyu Saleh. The current edition of the paper has a story on the alleged atrocities perpetrated by men of the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Potiskum in which 84 persons were said to have been abducted and whisked away to unknown destinations. On account of the controversial JTF story, the abducted editors’ families suspect that the invaders were probably agents of the State Secret Service (SSS) or the JTF itself. Spokesmen of the police and the military have denied involvement in the abduction of the editors. But few people are convinced, in spite of the abductors dressing up in United States-style military fatigues.
If it is eventually proved that a government security agency carried out the abduction of the editors, it will represent a new low in law enforcement in Nigeria. The act will not only exacerbate insecurity, it will also unfortunately lend credence to the allegation that security organisations such as the JTF indeed subscribe to very unusual tactics in fighting terrorism in the Northeast. The editors, their families told the media, were abducted without warrant, and were brutalised together with their families during the arrest. It will be recalled that a few weeks ago, some news agencies carried reports indicating that 84 people were arrested by the JTF and taken to unknown destinations. The reports, which the military authorities have vigorously denied, also insinuated that murder, torture and other forms of atrocities were committed by security agencies in the Northeast town of Potiskum.
Whatever the merit of the case against the editors, the methods employed in arresting them are evidently unlawful and showed how clearly law and order can no longer be guaranteed in the country. Even for the most inciting and mendacious media reports, there are established modalities for tackling them and dealing with media professionals who break the law. With the country swamped by robbers, kidnappers, impersonators, and security agents who have embraced extra-judicial killing, it is a disservice to the government and people of Nigeria for any law enforcement body to adopt the style of the underworld. The Kaduna abductions indicate the gradual and steady decline of the country into jungle justice.
If any security agency is complicit in the unlawful arrest of the editors, it is not enough that the editors should be released and the proper procedures followed in bringing them to justice for any wrongdoing; the abduction itself must also be investigated and all the law enforcement agents involved in the unlawful act punished. The danger in glossing over this obnoxious method of law enforcement is that the gangland style of arresting citizens will be successfully imitated by criminal organisations, as in fact they are already doing, encouraged by the culture of impunity that is pervasive among security agencies.
No matter the provocation, security agencies must have the discipline to uphold the law unquestioningly. Nothing excuses security agencies acting like gangsters. And we must hope that the Kaduna editors were not abducted by real criminal gangs, for that would compound the distress the country is experiencing and the incompetence of the government in guaranteeing security.
