Spate Of Kidnappings In Nigeria : Kaduna Beats Zamfara

…Becoming Kidnapping Center In The Country

By Mike Odeh James

14 years Miracle Danjuma had hectic night reading the previous day. She was preparing to join her contemporaries to write the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination the following day.

Heading towards the examination hall, she met Ezra Bako and Happy Odoji, moving like the speed of light to get to the hall, when sound of gunshot booms.

In a jiffy, gunmen who rode on motorcycles shot into the air, stormed Prince Academy in Damban Kassaya, abducted Miracle, Ezra, Happy and their teacher. Prior to the attack, the school witnessed gunmen killing one of its security guards.

Few days later, the gunmen contacted one of the parents of the kidnapped girls, demanded 20 million naira for the release of their daughter. This incident occurred on August 22, 2020.

If Miracle and her classmates are alive, it was not so lucky for the wife of Philip Ataga, a medical personnel. On 24th of January, 2020, fifty gunmen stormed the compound of the Atagas, shot a local guard, carted away Mrs. Ataga, including two of her children.

The kidnappers, according to a member of the victim’s family, demanded for the sum of 150 million naira before they could release their victims. A week passed by without the random showing forth when they killed Mrs. Ataga, dumped her body in a nearby bush, and informed her husband get the corpse for funerals. They had their anger stemming from the fact that a helpless, hapless Mr. Ataga failed to raise the requested ransom.

Just last year, two police officers were kidnapped in distinct operations in the state. A female police officer on statutory duty was also kidnapped in Millennium City; two others were kidnapped along the border of Nasarawa and Kaduna States.

Many years ago, Kaduna State prided herself as the Centre of Learning, Commerce and Industry. The State boasts of ten higher institutions, with students numbering thousands from across the Nigerian Federation, as well as neighbouring countries jostling for admission. Added to her educational prosperity, Kaduna was home to some of the largest textile firms in West Africa, an advantage it employed in offering jobs to many. It was and still regarded as a commercial hub for businessmen, farmers, to mention but few.

However, with the progression of time, another form of business has taken over the State, growing sporadically. It is dangerous, harmful, but very lucrative – abduction!

According to the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Adamu, out of the 685 people of victims kidnapped in 2019 in Nigeria, 281 of the victims were from Zamfara. The IGP report makes Zamfara the abduction capital of Nigeria.

An investigative report by Desert Herald revealed that between April and December of 2019, the reported cases of kidnapped persons in Kaduna were above 35. In the same year, a report by Channels Tv said about 30 persons from Rigasa were kidnapped by bandits and taken to a forest nearby.

Unreported cases by the police risk putting the toll higher. Per index case, Kaduna State runs neck-to-neck with Zamfara as a major kidnapping hotspot.

First and second quarters of 2020 have respectively seen more kidnappings in Kaduna, compared to the entire documented cases in 2019.

MODUS OPERANDI
Most kidnappers are organized, heavily equipped. They use hacksaws, hammers and other harmful tools to carry out their operations, with no less than 20-50 motorcycles or buses to convey their prey.

Upon arrival at target communities, they shot into the air sporadically, with the intention of instilling fear in the minds of the locales – an action aimed at eliminating all forms of resistance before proceeding to victim’s territory. Those who dare stand their way are exterminated without recourse to consideration.

Should their victims be protected by burglaries or fence, bandits often take their time to break down these artificial barriers by using readily available equipments brought along. They are also prepared to engage local vigilantes for the duration of their operation.

A post-operation revelation by Dr. Philip Ataga indicates that the marauders operated for three hours, clamping down protective barriers in place before kidnapping his wife. The intimidating size of the banditry group, its firepower and preparedness to apply brutal force serve as deterrent to local guards, extending to policemen sent in rescue of their victims.

In what appears as conventional escapist tactics, the police or security personnel sent to crime scenes often arrive late, much later than the bandits have disappeared. Desert Herald confirmed bandits would seize phone(s) of victims along for easy reach of their relatives for possible bailout.

But once they are safely away from harm, the kidnappers would herd their victims to mountainous terrains which are impenetrable, located in remote areas and then commence the process of bargaining with relatives of their victims.

Usual ranges maintained by the banditry network for securing release are from as low as 50 million to 20 million Nigerian naira, before coming down to whatever the families of the victims could afford to pay.

The kidnappers are not oblivious of happenings in the area with which they had raided; any attempt to shortchange them may result in the killing of their victims.

In the event certain negotiation is not favourable at some point, they would torture their captives whose relatives are not cooperating. During torture-process, the connected phone would be positioned on loudspeaker, prompting those in position to give ransom to be convinced of saving their own from physical deficiencies.

Besides, words of these bandits are not to be trusted, simply because victims are sometimes executed, even after collecting ransom. Captured clients are often killed on ground of suspicion that the victim may recognize them in social circles upon release; or the victim may give possibly arresting leads, thereafter.

An attempt to escape attracts instant execution of victims upon apprehension, even if ransom had been collected or otherwise.

KADUNA STATE ABDUCTION HOTSPOT

Kidnapping was predominantly perpetrated in Kaduna-Abuja Expressway and in towns like Birnin Gwari road, Kateri, Rijana, Kakau and Jere before it reared its ugly head all over, now. There were intermittent raids on hideout of bandits by the police, which necessitated them to move to the fringes of hinterland. Rather than give up on the disastrous act, abductors only changed location, as well as tactics.

Kidnappers currently operate in rural areas of the State stretching from Chikun to Igabi, and in Giwa Local Government Areas of the state.

In 2019, the men of the underworld stormed Engravers College, a school located in the remote area of Chikun Local Government, carting away 4 students and two teachers. Fast forward June 2020, Gonin Gora, a community in Chikun witnessed abduction. The operation saw gunmen storming a house, kidnapping 5 brothers. It would be repeated on August 16, 2020, when another armed squad broke into a school in Damba Kassaya, a village in Chikun, killing a security operative, in an exercise involving the kidnapping of a teacher and four other school children.

In a related development, abductors struck in Igabi Local Government Area, moved away with two pregnant women and three others in June 2019. In Nariya, a closer community to Rigasa, over 30 residents were kidnapped and moved to a nearby forest.

A large proportion of victims of kidnappers are no longer the rich, politicians nor businessmen, it knows no social status as events unfold. Upon displacement from the popular, usual Kaduna-Abuja Highway, heavy security presence on their once-upon-a-time operating route has retracted the marauders to divert attention, with preys on farms and rural markets.

It is notable that harassment of farmers in the rural communities induced also many farmers and their families to flee their settlements for areas considered safe – an action resulting into low agricultural/food productivity.

Many traders who patronize rural areas to buy food stuff have stopped for the fear of being kidnapped. Kidnapping, if not curtailed in the following months by the government will see prices of agricultural produce certainly escalating, with prices of food items becoming unaffordable to the commoners.

In recent times, the hoodlums are targeting schools and they have to an extent succeeded in carting away number of students. Above all, parents and guardians may be forced to withdraw their children from schools due to the same reason: insecurity!

The police and other security agencies are doing their best to curtail this ugly trend. In 2019 and early part of this year, security agencies led by the commissioner of police in the state have staged large scale operations along the Abuja Kaduna Expressway and nearby villages. Many kidnappers and criminals were arrested but so far, none has been prosecuted.

According to Hamzat Nura, a security expert based in Kaduna: “The inability of the state to show proof that arrested kidnappers are brought to justice is fuelling the belief that the hoodlums are untouchable.

“I can tell you that other kidnappers would feel that they can kidnap, maim, kill and get away with it. Furthermore, Nigerians are resentful of that and may not want to volunteer information that would lead to arrest of more kidnappers”, he added.

Another Kaduna resident, Abel Danlami, felt that the security agencies and the government are not pursuing the bandits the way the government is fighting rape and rapists.

Danlami had this to say: “If the government applies the vigour it used in fighting rape crimes in the state to the fight against kidnappers, I tell you the scourge of kidnapping would have significantly dropped.

Usman Abu believes that the government is doing its best but, it is simply overwhelmed and it would go back to the drawing board.