Incidences of kidnapping are no longer news on these shores. The degeneration of the malfeasance in the last couple of years in the face of the inability of security agencies to get a handle to it has left Nigerians seemingly at the mercy of all manner of marauders masquerading as kidnappers.
Even with this seeming collective surrender to fate or helplessness, our consciences are still constantly assailed by the existential and mortal dimensions the scourge has continued to assume. Chilling accounts of the fate of innocent citizens in the hands of kidnappers dot the social space. It is either a tale of kidnapping for ransom, ritual killing or to settle scores for perceived wrongs.
Many families have lost their loved ones; thrown into sudden grief by the devious activities of callous kidnappers who take advantage of the forests to perpetrate their heinous trade. One of such incidents was the death last week of Major Joe Ajayi, an 80-year old retired army officer in the hands of some demented kidnappers.
Ajayi was abducted from his hometown in the Odo-Ape, Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State in the midnight of May 21. His abductors made an initial demand of N50 million ransom for his release which the family could not just afford.
As his incarceration lingered, the family requested the kidnappers to allow them forward his medication to him. But the kidnappers accepted the family’s request only on the ground that it would come with extra cost. It was inconceivable to fathom how a family that could not raise a substantial part of the humongous amount initially demanded could go about the additional cost. They were unable to meet that demand.
Without the help of his regular drugs, Ajayi’s health deteriorated. And when his captors noticed this, they quickly reduced the ransom to N10 million. In the hope that the kidnapped was still alive, the family quickly agreed to pay the reduced sum. They rallied around, raised the money in the hope of securing his release.
“Once the ransom was paid, the kidnappers directed the family to where they would find him, only for them to meet Ajayi’s lifeless body” a source in the community recounted in utter grief. Sad indeed!
The circumstances of Ajayi’s death denote an uncanny metaphor for the mindless killings and atrocities our citizens have had to go through since the social scourge resonated in our national chessboard. Perhaps, his case attracted the attention it did because of his position in the society.
Across the country and on a daily basis, many innocent citizens are made to pass through life-threatening ordeals in the hand of rampaging kidnappers, losing their lives in the process without notice. In their homes, work places, along the highways and our railways, nobody seems to be safe any longer. The matter has so degenerated that the fear of kidnappers is now viewed as the beginning of wisdom.
Apparently pained by the death, the Bunu Leaders Forum in a statement said the gruesome manner the retired major died was on the conscience of Nigerian leaders who neglected their duties to the nation. For them, the nation failed the senior army officer who had spent much of life in the service of the country.
Before Ajayi’s case, a former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (rtd) was also abducted in his hometown, Tsiga in the Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State. The bandits struck around 12 am on motorcycles, shooting sporadically before forcefully gaining entrance into Tsiga’s residence.
They abducted the retired army general together with an unspecified number of indigenes of the area. But that was not before some people had lost their lives to the senseless shootings. The incident caused considerable fear and panic and forced many residents of the community to flee for safety.
Gen, Tsiga spent 56 days in captivity as all attempts to have him freed proved abortive until some huge amount of money was paid as ransom. A retired Brigadier-General, Ismaila Abdullahi had after Tsiga’s release said that his freedom was facilitated by generous financial contributions from fellow army officers, generals, serving and retired military officers and a wide spectrum of other civilians. In a note of appreciation shared on his Facebook on behalf of Tsiga and his associates, Abdullahi detailed the community-driven efforts that secured the release of Tsiga.
But the statement drew the ire of Defence Headquarters. The acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau had said in a statement that the article by Abdullahi which claimed military generals contributed money to secure the release of Tsiga from captivity after 56 days was baseless.
Gusau was apparently unhappy with the inability of Abdullahi to acknowledge the efforts by the military, both kinetic and non-kinetic, to secure the release of the kidnapped general. This could be discerned from the catalogue of what he called the relentless efforts by the military that facilitated Tsiga’s release which he went ahead to furnish.
To the military can be conceded its claim to series of efforts that culminated in the release of Tsiga from captivity. Nobody is denying them that. But the fact remains that huge sums of money was raised and paid to the kidnappers before Tsiga was set free. Abdullahi did not disclose the amount. But he acknowledged in the post that donations came like August rains.
Gusau may have been worried by the wrong signal Abdullahi’s claim that military officers, serving and retired, contributed to the donation to free Tsiga could convey. This is quite understandable. But that is the reality of the fate of those who have been unlucky to fall into the hands of kidnappers. It is money or nothing. And if a friend or relation is involved, donors defy ranks and professions especially if it is the only thing that could secure the release of the captive.
Tsiga corroborated this dimension after his release when he said that the kidnappers do not want to hear anything about God. They are only interested in money. He gave a chilling account of how shortly before they were released, hungry hyenas suddenly surrounded them and how they co-existed with dangerous snakes and scorpions. He attributed his safety to divine providence.
That was the ordeal Tsiga is alive to tell. But Ajayi has no story to tell as he succumbed in the hands of his traducers. Given his age, one could imagine what he would have passed through without his medication.
They refused him his drugs. They obviously did not want him to come out alive. Yet, they deceived the family to part with N10 million only to show them the dead body of the elderly man. Where has our conscience gone to and how did we get to this point where human life no longer counts?
These searing questions highlight the contradictions in the festering criminalities across the country that pays scant attention to human life. These are military officers who served the country in various capacities. They passed through the rigors of military training and must have encountered challenging situations while in service before retiring.
While in service, nobody dared challenge or threaten their lives. They had full security back up. After retirement, they settled in their home towns only to be taken captive and dehumanised by a band of ragtag urchins masquerading as kidnappers. One could read the minds of the officers as were tortured by these criminals.
They would have nursed reminiscences of their career in the military; the powers they wielded and how all that could give way to their incarceration by a band of ragtag criminals. That was the situation the Okun forum referenced upon when they said the nation which Ajayi served failed him at the moment of need.
Ajayi and Tsiga are not alone in this dilemma that speaks of the inability of the government to secure lives and property. The Defence Information reeled out the efforts they made to secure the release of Tsiga. Sadly, nothing of such was heard in the case of Ajayi. If there was such effort, the fact that the kidnappers only released his dead body after ransom had been paid underscores the role of money in securing the freedom of kidnapped victims.
Fund raising in such circumstances knows no boundaries or professions. And as in Tsiga’s case, the Okun forum also acknowledged military colleagues ‘that also joined to work round the challenge, friends and well-wishers’.
The issue is not about who contributed money for ransom but the steps the government is taking to roll out effective measures to make kidnapping and all manner of criminalities a risky enterprise. The lesson served by the sad fate of Ajayi and Tsiga is that nobody is spared in the scourge of kidnapping that has stretched the energies of security agencies to elastic limits. Something urgent must be done to tame this monster.
