What could have happened to those who paid N100m as ransom to kidnappers for the release of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Samuel Kanu-Uche, and two others, under the proposed law to criminalise ransom payment?
As the head of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, he is a high-profile religious figure, and it was predictable that the church would try to get him freed at all cost.
“The Methodist Church sent N100m for the three of us who were kidnapped. The money came from members of the Methodist Church of Nigeria,” he told journalists after his release.
He was abducted on May 29 on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, in the Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State. His chaplain, Very Rev. Abidemi Shittu, and the Bishop of Owerri, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark, were with him, and also abducted. He said “the communication man of the church and the driver “escaped.
His account of their experience at the hands of their captors showed that they walked through the proverbial valley of the shadow of death. He narrated: “They took us into the bush and tortured us. In the process of the torture, I hit my right eye on a tree and even when blood was flowing and was soaking my handkerchief, they did not feel like anything happened. All they said was that we should follow them.”
After negotiation with their captors, who fixed a ransom of N100m for their release, the cleric said he contacted leaders of the church and his wife to raise the money by all means.
They were shown a place where the kidnappers said seven beheaded bodies had been dumped, which must have sent shivers down their spines. “We also perceived the odour of killed human beings,” Kanu-Uche said.
This incident further showed the unreasonableness of the move by federal lawmakers to outlaw the payment of ransom to abductors and terrorists for the release of any person who has been wrongfully confined, imprisoned or kidnapped.
The Nigerian Senate, in April, passed an amendment bill that proposes a jail sentence of up to 15 years for anyone who pays a ransom. It would be sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence and then to the president for assent.
Under the proposed law, what would the ransom payers in Kanu-Uche’s case be expected to do? The proposed legislation denies their right to try to save the lives of the captives by paying ransom to the kidnappers. This doesn’t make sense, particularly because the authorities responsible for security continue to demonstrate impotence.