Kidnapping For Ransom, A Major Challenge Facing Nigeria Now –Agberen

By Daniel Dafe

Comr. (Amb) Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen, National Coordinator, Initiative For Social Rights Concerns And Advancement (ISRCA) AKA “No Justice, No Peace” has said that “kidnapping for ransom has become one of the most significant challenges facing Nigeria today,” adding that “the government is not attempting to address these issues,” just as he noted that the situation has become worse.

Agberen in a statement on Tuesday reacting to the release of Hon. Joan Onyemaechi, recalled that in 2022, the Nigerian Senate passed a bìłł imposing jail terms of at least 15 years for paying a ransom to free someone who has been kidnapped.

According to him, this certainly will not happen, especially when a government official is involved.

He said: “The effort channeled into passing such effortless bìłłs into law should have been channeled into acquiring and building a modern and standard intelligence network that can fish out these hoodlums from their hideouts and also engaging local/traditional security outfits.”

He said further: “Fortunately for the Government officials, it is poor people that suffer it, hence it was given no attention. Unfortunately, the table has turned. Insecurity is now closer to all of us, including the political class, who are now the major targets.

On the former lawmaker’s release, he said: “While I am overwhelmed with great joy, on the safe return of Onyemaechi, a former commissioner of Technical Education, who was kidnapped in broad daylight, going by the video clip that surfaced on the media space. It was also recalled that the Police aide, who was also present in the scene, was shot dead among other events.

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“I really want to express my disappointment in the Delta State Government, knowing full well, that a whooping sum as ransom must have been paid in exchange for her freedom. These are some of the plights and challenges faced by the ordinary people, going by the insecurity threat in the state.

“What then happens to ordinary Nigerians who have been in captivity for several weeks running into months and years and the only thing keeping them as captives is the failure/inability of their families to pay the ransom?

“Who then comes to their aides? Is it the government or the police or their poor families who cannot afford good nutritional meals? Sadly enough, a lot of persons have been killed, raped; even most men, forced to having anal sax at gunpoint, when unable to meet the ransom demanded. They’re left to their own fate while the State Government turns blind eyes to these lingering issues.

Continuing, he wondered why “despite suggestive measures given by experts and CSO’s on the needs to establish her traditional outfits to engage the bushes and creeks to purge out these menace that have become a norm, the government is still not active, let alone being proactive to taking preventive measures. “

Furthermore, he also appreciated the Senior Special Assistant On Civil Society Organisation And Non-Governmental Organisation, to the Delta State Government; Comrade Victor Ojei, AKA Wong Box, on the efforts being made to engage the Hunters Security Outfits, to curb these excesses in the bushes and within,” while calling on the police to fast track their investigation.

The statement reads further: “From the gestures of the Delta State Police Command, it is obvious that the Police wasn’t involved in the rescuing process. Meanwhile, the Police should further subject the video that surfaced on the internet to forensic video analysis review, as the faces of the suspected kidnappers weren’t hidden. From the voice note in the video clip by the recorder, they had initially suspected the kidnappers to be Police operatives; going by the way they handled the rifle. Also, it is so unsafe to have persons having such sophisticated weapons in the hands of civilians or whoever it may be. From the plots in the operation, it is obvious that they had carried out the attack by classified information from an insider; hence the Delta Police Command should widen their scope of the investigation.