Spike in kidnappings, banditry have South West on edge

For some time now, kidnappers and robbers have been plaguing states in the South-West, with incidents spiking recently. Recently, affected governors had to call out to security chiefs for help, and even held an emergency summit. What, exactly, is going on? Daily Trust Saturday takes a look.   In March, 2019, Alhaji Yakubu Musa, 42, […]

For some time now, kidnappers and robbers have been plaguing states in the South-West, with incidents spiking recently. Recently, affected governors had to call out to security chiefs for help, and even held an emergency summit. What, exactly, is going on? Daily Trust Saturday takes a look.

 

In March, 2019, Alhaji Yakubu Musa, 42, a Bureau De Change operator and his business associate, Hassan Umar, were abducted. The duo was taken by the bandit who had allegedly called to say that they had a friend who just returned from America and needed to change some dollars to naira. Days later, someone called to demand N5 million as ransom. The Yakubu and Hassan families made a payment of N1.5 million, and the kidnappers thereafter cut all contact. Weeks later, the decomposed bodies of the two Bureau De Change operators were found in a septic tank in an uncompleted building at Ikorodu.

The tragic incident mentioned above represents the larger security challenge being faced in Lagos, and neighbouring South West states. Indeed, there has been an upsurge in the number of kidnapping cases within the geopolitical zone, putting residents on edge.

Bandits, perpetrating their crimes, scout for victims from Lagos to Ondo, Osun to Ekiti, Oyo and Ogun states, using every available space, bush, forest and abandoned properties as their lairs. Isolated roads and highways such as the Ilesha-Akure road, Ikorodu-Epe, as well as the waterways of areas like Arepo, Ikorodu, Epe among others that link Lagos and Ogun states have continuously served as their haunts. And in their operations, no class of human is spared: The poor, rich and the powerful have all fallen into their traps at one time or the other.

Rasaki Musibau, Director of Lagos State Fire Safety, is an example of someone who landed into the kidnappers’ hands. The middle-aged officer of the Lagos State Government was sometime in April driving from home in Ikorodu to Epe, when the kidnappers struck. Witnesses said the Fire Safety boss attempted a hasty detour upon sighting the criminals, but he still got cornered and taken away, along with five others. However, he secured his return and has since remained silent about his ordeal.

In another incident some days ago, Dayo Adewole, son of the immediate-past health minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, was abducted by a gang of kidnappers while on the way to his farm in Fiditi, in Oyo State. Although he was lucky to be released after 24 hours in captivity, not many have been so blessed. Some stay for weeks and days, while some have been outrightly killed in the process, even as the list of victims grows longer.

And barely 24 hours after governors of the six South West States of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo States converged in Ibadan, to deliberate on the rising menace of kidnapping, news of a 12-seater bus, commuting between Akure, the Ondo State Capital and Ikere, a town in Ekiti State was hijacked by kidnappers, whisking all the passengers away. The police however debunked the report, insisting that only one passenger, suspected to be a chieftain of the National Union of Road and Transportation Workers (NURTW) was actually kidnapped.

Security agents repeatedly say they are doing their best to tame the menace.

Rights activist, Dr. Joe Okei- Odunmakin, at a function to mark the World Drug Day organized by the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CRAN) in Lagos, said organized crime, such as kidnapping, like any other successful business, adapts to changing market conditions.

Odumakin was right. Indeed, kidnapping, cult-related attacks, among other acts of criminalities have been on the rise as confirmed by security agencies.

Between, February and April, 2019, about 202 suspected members of various cult gangs as well as 105 armed robbery suspects were arrested in different parts of the Lagos metropolis, according to the State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu.

Muazu, who made the disclosure while parading over 300 armed robbery suspects and suspected members of different secret cult gangs at Ikorodu area, added that the Command has “painstakingly put in place measures to reclaim the destiny of Nigerian youths” who have chosen the path of crime by engaging in various cult activities.

The CP explained that defeating cultism would therefore mean defeating all heinous crimes in the State, as virtually every major crime recorded in the State have a link to cultism. He said that those arrested are mainly members of Aiye and Eiye confranternities and that some of them have been charged to courts, currently at different stages of prosecution.

“We have also recovered 54 assorted weapons. Other successes recorded by the Command includes the arrest of 105 suspects for armed robbery and seven suspects for kidnapping.

“The Command has also successfully foiled 93 armed robbery attempts through prompt response to distress calls from members of the public at different locations in the state… The various cult groups and gangs identified within the state include: Aiye and Eiye confraternities, One million boys at Ajengule, Fadeyi boys at Fadeyi area, Akala boys at Mushin area, Nokia group at Surulere area, Shitta boys at Bariga, Oworonshoki, Shomolu and Palm grove areas, Awawa boys at Dopemu, Agege Ogba and Iyana Ipaja.

“We have observed the activities of those cult groups and gangs for the last one month and credible intelligence was gathered. We have reviewed our strategies and have initiated far reaching approach to totally eradicate this menace. We are taking the fight to them, we are all-out for them, and will bring them to justice,” the CP said.

Worried by the state of insecurity in the region, the governors who met at an emergency meeting in Ibadan, said beyond political differences, a time has come for concerted efforts aiming at curtailing criminal activities in South West. The Chairman, South West Governors’ Forum, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State said that as leaders, the governors must be determined to protect the people. He also called for the setting up of a joint regional border patrol and cooperation in intelligence gathering among the six states.

“We will work together as governors. We have started working together casting aside partisan coloration. The ultimate aim is socio-economic integration. We must totally depend on each other,” Akeredolu said.

Similarly, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said as part of urgent measures to be taken, there is a need for collaboration to provide common solutions to the security problem as well as embracing the idea of community, state and neighbourhood policing. He noted that state police can exist side-by-side with the Federal Police as the case is in other parts of the world.

“State Police is the way to go. This would give the chief security officers in each of the states the opportunity to direct their affairs and make them accountable instead of waiting for Federal directives before major actions could be taken on incidents of banditry, cultism and other heinous crimes.

“Controlling one’s police at the state level would help us achieve unhindered and accelerated response to any criminal activities recorded within our communities. The importance of security in human existence cannot be underestimated which means security is paramount to the existence of all human beings and no meaningful development could be recorded in the absence of security,” Sanwo-Olu said.