Kidnapping, Cattle Herders: A Call For Action

By Balogun Mabamije

If the saying that a “stitch in time saves nine” is anything to go by, then the time for the Delta State Government to act is now.

The spate of kidnapping, destruction of farmland and criminality in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen has continued to increase on daily basis.

Apart from kidnapping for ransom, most victims were killed at any slightest provocation of inability to meet up with the demands of the abductors, irrespective of the financial position of the victims and their families, causing tragic pain for the victims and their family members.

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It is a reality that Nigerians are facing hard time with the removal of fuel subsidy and the free fall of the Naira which in turn has jacked up prices of staple foods and other services in the country and now being further challenged by yet another dicey situation, kidnapping !

Recently, the son of a devout Christian in one of the pentecostal churches was kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Ughelli, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, with a huge ransom paid before he was released.

The father who narrated his experience and that of his son at the hands of the kidnappers, said the family and his son passed through hell for the five days the son was held captive by the kidnappers.

For the family, they passed through mental torture while the son was with the kidnappers. The victim was tortured and kept in the forest without food nor water for five days before the family scratched everywhere for money to secure his release.

Narrating his experience in the hands of the kidnappers, the young man said the situation was near death, traumatic and not something one would wish even an enemy !

According to him, it was Monday evening, around 7pm, when he drove home. At his gate, as he was about to come down from his car to open it, he heard the sounds of gun shots with terrible bang on his car. In a swift moment with dexterity of a trained maskman, the rear tyres of his car were blown off and two young stern looking herdsmen pointing guns at him came to pick him like a snail and escorted him into the forest. From that moment, the only thing he could do was just to pray for God to spare his life.

Also in Ughelli recently, a former Commissioner for Higher education and former ASUU-DELSU Chairman, a renown political leader in the state, Prof Patrick Muoboghanre narrated his experience to newsmen of what he suffered in the hands of suspected herdsmen, where his farm produce were ravaged by the cattle.

Prof Muoboghanre, from Uwherun Community in Ughelli North Local Government Area, a community bedeviled and ravaged by the herdsmen annually, could not fathom how on earth the herdsmen traced his farm in far away Oviri-Ogor Ughelli Road. The question on his mind was whether the Uwherun people were eternally sold to the herdsmen? His cry is for God’s intervention and a wakeup call for the Delta State Government to take immediate action to checkmate the demonic elements hibernating in the community.

The Jesse Road which formed alternative route to those plying the Benin-Warri Road has also become a den of kidnapping and wanton killings by the same suspected Fulani herdsmen.

This evil may consume the state, if something urgent is not done and the time to act is now; for a stitch in time saves nine.