A recent report in Daily Trust on Sunday that highlighted the problem of kidnap for ransom along the Abuja-Kaduna express road should be a source of concern for all Nigerians and should elicit a major effort from the government and the security agencies to combat this menace. This express road is one of the most […]
A recent report in Daily Trust on Sunday that highlighted the problem of kidnap for ransom along the Abuja-Kaduna express road should be a source of concern for all Nigerians and should elicit a major effort from the government and the security agencies to combat this menace. This express road is one of the most important highways in the country, linking the federal capital with the major cities of Kaduna and Kano as well as the entire North West region of the country. Tens of thousands of vehicles ply this road every day, some of them coming all the way from the southern and north central states while thousands of others are public officers, businessmen and other citizens who travel to and from Abuja for various reasons.
Even though armed robbery has been an on and off scourge on this highway for many years given its economic and social importance, seizing travelers from the highway and holding them for ransom is a dangerous and very worrisome new dimension to criminal activities on it. Victims told stories of how large groups of armed men, sometimes up to 20 or 30, dressed in military uniforms, would block the highway, force vehicles to stop and proceed to rob travelers of their belongings. That is only for starters. They then select those victims that appear to them to be financially valuable, march them off into the bush and ferry them on motorcycles deep into the bush to what the victims described as well organised and heavily guarded camps.
The victims reported that they found many other kidnap victims in the camps, who were also travelers who had been seized on the highway and marched off to the camps. Even though they said the kidnappers’ camps are deep into the bush and far away from the highway, their account suggests that the camps are no more than a few kilometers away. The victims also described how they were fed with food snatched by the robbers from nearby villages, and how the kidnappers were in constant telephone conversation with victims’ families, negotiating ransom payments. All of these suggest a very well organized criminal operation right under the noses of the authorities.
These camps should be eliminated immediately. The victims said they were seized in the vicinity of Rijana village on the Kaduna-Abuja highway. These should give security agencies a clue as to the location of the camps. A joint military and police operation is required, with the help of the Air Force, to locate these camps, free the victims and wipe them from the face of the earth. It is also likely that the kidnap camps, much like insurgents’ camps in the North East, may not be totally stationary but would be moved up and down the forests. All of them should be found and destroyed and the culprits should be apprehended and brought to justice immediately.
In fairness to the security agencies, they have over the years maintained joint patrols along this very important highway with the help of state governments. Those who ply this road often see vehicles with soldiers and policemen in them, moving steadily along the highway and patrolling it. Most of these vehicles are marked Operation Yaki, the special Kaduna State security outfit. These operations need regular rejuvenation because the vehicles soon become old and can no longer perform the job adequately. Besides, the highway stretches through Kaduna and Niger States and the Federal Capital Territory so the cooperation of all three state authorities is required to sponsor and maintain these patrols. It would be futile if one state sponsors the patrols while the others leave the stretches of road in their territories unguarded.
We urge the authorities to act with dispatch and clear these kidnappers’ dens that imperil one of the most important arteries of the country. Unless urgent action is taken, this criminal enterprise could snowball out of control.
