Who will stop the kidnapping spree?

Of late there has been the usual hand-wringing by those whose duty is to protect us. This is expected as within a space of only a week over 400 persons were brazenly abducted by terrorists of whatever garb. Last week this page referred to the abduction of 287 pupils attending a morning assembly in LEA […]

Of late there has been the usual hand-wringing by those whose duty is to protect us. This is expected as within a space of only a week over 400 persons were brazenly abducted by terrorists of whatever garb. Last week this page referred to the abduction of 287 pupils attending a morning assembly in LEA Primary School Kuriga, a village in Chikun Local Government of Kaduna State and 15 almajiri kids from a Tsangaya in Gidan Bakuso in Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State. During about the same period, 112 women and children staying in an IDP camp in Gamboru-Ngala were waylaid by Boko Haram elements when they ventured out seeking firewood in the surrounding forest.

After that, instead of our leaders getting busy in the arena in the vicinity of the forests of Kuriga and Gidan Bakuso or the firgi plains of Ngala, we are treated to a round of the circus of unhelpful meetings that only come up with the same predictable and jejune outcomes. One of the meetings was truly high-level, involving the NSA, the ministers of defence, the service chiefs and the northern governors, and for the umpteenth time, the decision arrived at was to adopt other means of dealing with the crises at hand. And what are those other means, readers might ask? The governor of Gombe State who addressed the press after the meeting said, among other things: “What we need to do is to change style, especially adding the non-kinetic approach, so that at the end of it when we join the two, we’ll have a better security situation in the country.” But we have heard that before to no avail.

Now while these consultations were taking place in those cosy surroundings, those kidnapped have been in the hands of these ruthless terrorists for over a week, living in the harshest conditions imaginable. One of the kids abducted from the primary school in Kuriga and who escaped while on the trek with the terrorists gave a graphic account to the BBC Hausa service. He said they were herded like cattle – sun kora mu kamar shanu – trekking for kilometres into the bush, and on hearing the drone of air force planes would order the kids to lie down in the bush without moving to avoid the prying eyes of those on their pursuit in the plane. The horror of it all becomes visibly manifest when you realise that all the kids kidnapped from Kuriga and Gidan Bakuso are below the age of 12.

It is time to get rid of this menace of cyclical kidnapping spree. It has now become an established way of crime and has become endemic in the North. The police earlier overwhelmed by the Boko Haram insurgency are now further incapacitated by the new wave of kidnappings. The military that helped to subdue the Boko Haram terrorists was called in to salvage the kidnapping situation but is so far pinned down in many areas and is clearly overstretched and fatigued.

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The military is now the only solution we have for Boko Haram terrorists, IPOD insurgents, Niger Delta agitators and bandits in the North West as well as dealing with the interminable communal clashes in Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Benue states.

It must be a full plate for the military. This is besides the fact that as an institution, the military is also undermanned and underfunded. To worsen matters battling with kidnappers has become a different kettle of fish. The kidnappers engaged in these nefarious acts know their vast forest and use high-powered motorcycles for movement which can outmanoeuvre many heavy vehicles used by our military. In any case, the military would not shoot through their way to avoid collateral damage to the kidnapped victims. Thus, these kidnapping situations get bogged down in interminable ups and downs.

Hopefully, a silver lining is appearing on the horizon as Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, the Kaduna-based cleric, has offered to intercede to get those kidnapped out of the terrorists’ den. In a statement, he released, the sheikh pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to allow him to negotiate. He said: “I am ready to lead a holistic dialogue between the government and bandits. It is my religious duty to do so for peace.” I guess there is nothing vain in his proposal as he, along with Professor Usman Yusuf, played valiant roles during the saga of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack in 2022.

They were the heroes, under the aegis of the Presidential Committee set up by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Erabor, who helped to negotiate with the terrorists to release the remaining 23 victims. The sheikh and the professor have also done a lot of legwork in the forests in the North West and are conversant with many bandit groups and have successfully secured the release of kidnapped victims. Their pursuits have been transparent and adjudged to be patently altruistic.

Professor Yusuf, in particular, has been indefatigable running from one media house to the other promoting the need to use more of the non-kinetic method in dealing with the bandits.

From my perspective, the governors of the affected states and the military should listen to them once more, and utilise their services to sort out this sordid situation.