Kidnapping: A Southern disease, now a Northern pandemic

By Samson Atekojo Usman

There was a time kidnapping and hostage taking was the order of the day in the Southern Nigeria. It was the disease of the South which the people hardly sleep with their eyes closed. Then, it was seen as the headache of the Southerners, such that the Southern region was christened, ‘evil axis.’ Kidnapping took a business dimension to the extent that it metamorphosed into a full blown industry with huge ransom paid by kidnapped victims. A woeful situation that betide a region with attendant stigma on the good and the bad people. Nobody from other regions would like to have anything to do in the South as the business or transaction was left for Southerners who understand the cosmogony of their environment to do business.

Eleven years ago, there lived a notorious kidnapper, Obioma Nwankwo, alias Osisikakwu, one among many others, whose fear was the beginning of wisdom in Abia State. Then, he was the king of the jungle; a landlord of Abia forest which mortal men prays not to encounter him and his gangs, otherwise, one would end up in the forest. His operational base was in the Abia forest, but his sphere of operation was the five South East States.

The fear of Osisikakwu and other rampaging kidnappers holed up South East indigenes in the Diaspora, not wanted to visit home during Christmas and new year and even Easter period for fear of being kidnapped. The South East ‘big boys’ in Abuja, Lagos, PortHarcourt, who are ransom-worthy dare not step to their native land, so as not to be kidnapped.

Traditionally, people of South East are given to celebration during new yam festivals, but kidnapping and other forms of criminalities halted those things.

Apart from ransom paid by kidnapped victims frequently, governors of South East States spend huge sums of money to pay ransom and tackling crimes and criminality. While Osisikakwu loomed large, his variant, Chukwudi Dumee Onuamadike, alias Evans who is often referred to as ‘billionaire kidnapper’ was a nightmare. Evans, a citizen of Anambra, South East Nigeria operates from Lagos and whereas, Osisikakwu has been eliminated by the Joint Military Task Force operating in Abia State in 2010, Evans was arrested alive and is facing criminal prosecution.

The triumph of security agents over kidnappers in the South, unarguably, was due to cooperation of governors who are chief security officers and the people who are at the receiving end. Presently, there is a sigh of relief and the rest is now history.

This is opposed to the evil of kidnapping and abduction in Northern Nigeria, whose architect are the Northern leaders. The menace of kidnapping is tentackled in political leaders and it is sustained by leadership hypocrisy. It has become a pandemic in the North with no end in sight which unfortunately, the poor are the victims. The duality of misfortune of insurgency in North East and hostage taking in the North West has destroyed the zone and its people.

Before kidnappers shifted targets to Northern schools, they have often been pampered by some governors and politicians who created the menace. From Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina to Government Secondary School, Kagara in Niger State to Secondary School in Birnin Gwari in Kaduna South Senatorial district, kidnapping was with full knowledge of elements within the political circle.

Kidnapping in the North is driven by two things; by political vendetta and for ransom purposes. This is no wonder that in Zamfara State, North West Nigeria, governor Bello Matawalle Maradun has often cried out that some politicians are behind banditry activities in the State for political reasons. A traditional ruler was recently suspended by the governor of Zamfara State for comprising with bandits.

A former zamfara governorship candidate on the platform of APGA at a press conference, penultimate week, alledged that some politicians of the All Progressives Congress took N56 million to bandits in their hideout not to release Jangebe abductees when government was negotiating for their freedom. This is not far from the truth, given that some of the repented bandits have even confirmed that they have their informants among the people.

Kidnapping in Zamfara is one, too many casualities on the vulnerable people in villages and communities. It remains that security of lives and properties is the responsibility of government, which is procured through its machineries. The idea of negotiating with bandits is a ‘hollow solution’, a hogwash that can’t stand the test of time. The pressure of attack on Zamfara citizens has confused Matawalle in toeing the wrong path – ‘negotiation with bandits’.

Going down the memory lane on how banditry and hostage taking were dealt with around the world, there were no near to negotiation as Zamfara State governor want the world to believe. This is because a criminal is always a criminal and they ought to have been seen like that by the governor.

Despite the so-called negotiation, a solution adumbrated by the governor and the intervention by the renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, attack on schools and vulnerable villages has not abated for once.

In an interview with a notorious repentant bandit leader, Auwal Daudawa which was published on Daily Trust Newspapers on 8th February 2021, Daudawa revealed that by going into kidnapping, every bandits feel threatened, hence, when they got ransom, the first thing they do is to buy more and sophisticated weapons for protection. So negotiating with bandits is a defeatist last option and can’t end any time soon.

Usman is a journalist and writes from Abuja.