A Rash of Condemnations

Gbenga Adefaye, President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE)

Furious reactions trail the abduction of four journalists in Abia state
By Olakunle Olafioye
Perhaps, more than any of the previous cases of kidnapping in Nigeria, penultimate Sunday’s abduction of four journalists and their driver at Umafor Ukwu, Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia state has attracted – and continues to attract – far more scathing reactions. Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Wahab Oba; Assistant Secretary, Sylva Okereke; Zonal Secretary of the NUJ, Zone G, Adolphus Okonkwo; with Sola Oyeyipo, a Lagos-based journalist, as well as their driver, Azeez Abdulrauf were returning from a National Executive Council meeting of the NUJ in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state when they were kidnapped. Their abductors demand a king’s ransom of N250 million as a pre-condition for their release.
The abduction of the journalists and their driver in the South eastern state of Abia has for the umpteenth brought to the fore the incessant cases of kidnapping in the area and the general state of insecurity in the nation as a whole. Across the nation, bitter recriminations have continued to trail the unfortuntate incident, with many who spoke on the issue calling for dire consequences for the crime of kidnapping.
Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole lamenting that kidnapping has assumed a frightening dimension expressed concerns that if not tackled with necessary force, matched with appropriate enabling laws, the scourage of kidnapping is capable of ridiculing the country and scaring away potential investors. The Speaker’s reaction which came via a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Ebomhiana Musa, stressed the need to strengthen the relevant anti-terrorism arm of the police and deploy them to kidnapping-prone states. For the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), a statement by its President, Gbenga Adefaye, described the situation as a reflection of the pitiable state of insecurity in the country. "While it is frightening that journalists whose primary responsibility is to help the weak survive have become the target of unconscionable crime of kidnap, the kidnap itself, like other reported cases in the South eastern states, reflect the pitiable state of insecurity in the country. We are really made to look like a failed state,” Adefaye said, while urging the kidnappers to release the abducted journalists, adding: “It is unthinkable for their poor dependants to cough out N250 million ransom.”
For Olisa Egbunike, Board member of the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), he would rather not absolve the government of blame. Egbunike blamed the government and security agencies for hitherto treating kidnapping with kid gloves. He said that the continued incidence of kidnapping, especially in the South east, could be blamed on greed and lack of job opportunities for the youths.
On his own part, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operations of Nigeria (AISSON), he described kidnapping as an act of terrorism, which according to him is exasperating and uncalled for. Ekhomu opines that the act endangers the lives of the captives and soils the name of the country in the eyes of the international community. He urged Nigerian youths to desist from such despicable acts capable of tarnishing the image of the country. Ekhomu charged the police authorities to deploy massive law enforcement resources in the search and rescue of the journalists.
A former NUJ chairman of Lagos Council, Lanre Arogundade, reasoned that the incessant cases of kidnapping in the country was a reflection that Nigeria was fast becoming a failed state. Arogundade noted that it has become such an embarrassing routine for kidnappers to grab people and ask for ransom. His words: “With the state of technology we have, there is still insecurity. The government is failing on its own part on this aspect of security which always take a large chunk of the budget.
“Be that as it may, it is highly unacceptable for kidnappers to target journalists who communicate with the general populace. The N250 million ransom is ridiculous as journalist are not oil magnates. It used to be killing, now it has turned to kidnapping,” he said.
Arogundade appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to protect the interest of journalists in the overall interest of the nation and urged journalists and media executives to set an agenda which demands accountability regarding how much is spent on votes. “Government should stop pursuing mundane things like zone and pursue the interest of the citizens,” he advised.
To activist lawyer and former President of the West Africa Bar Association (WABA), Femi Falana, the rising cases of kidnapping in Nigeria is as a result of failure on the part of the government to put an effective social security system in place. Falana, who flayed the government and the police over the travails of the kidnapped journalists faulted the posturing of the Inspector-General of Police and called for an overhaul of the police.
He called on the government to stop provoking Nigerians by displaying official hypocracy on the matter. “The impression should not be created that this is the first case of kidnapping or hostage-taking in the country. The statement credited to the police headquarters that the kidnapped journalists are safe has demonstrated connivance between the police authorities and the kidnappers,” the fiery lawyer said, adding that the IGP should tell Nigerians what has happened to all the alleged kidnappers who have been paraded before the press in the last one year. The police should tell Nigerians which court has tried any one of them.”
He also has a word for the country's lawmakers. Falana: “The legislators, particularly those in the National Assembly who are sheding crocodile tears should be ashamed of themselves, having provoked the youths of this country to high level of criminality because, in the midst of increasing proverty in the land, they (lawmakers) have allocated themselves in the last four years N700 billion to take care of 469 members out of the country’s 150 million population. Yet, they, like Oliver Twist, are asking for more.
“These funds are enough to set up an effective social security in the country that will take care of the disenchanted youths who have taken to criminality. Besides that, government must overhaul the police authorities,” he said.
Echoing a similar view, president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Rotimi Akeredolu, vowed to hold the security agencies responsible should any harm come to the journalists. Nigeria, Akeredolu noted, expends collosal sums on security monthly but the reality on ground, he said, does not justify the security votes routinely appropriated to whet the insatiable greed of political office holders.
“We have alerted the nation on several occasions on the extent of insecurity in the country. There are many unresolved cases still being investigated on the assassination of persons. The latest report has it that these hoodlums are demanding a ransom of N250 million. The phenomenon of kidnapping for ransom which started with the agitation for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region devastated by the cabal which has held the country hostage since independence has transmuted into an omnibus criminal, but lucrative venture sustained by hoodlums with the active connivance of some unscrupulous government officials. It has become a veritable source through which state funds are siphoned under the pretext that the demands of kidnappers must be met to save the lives of victims of crime.” Akeredolu said.
Senate President David Mark no less agrees that the rising wave of kidnapping in the country is a direct result of unemployment. He, however, noted that the South east and the South south are not the only regions with unemployment problem in the country. The Senate President who made his view known while considering a motion on the rising insecurity in the country went on to call for the declaration of emergency rule in states where the incident is rampant.
“If the federal government can declare a state of emergency in the power sector to get power back, it should as well declare a state of emergency in all these areas where we have armed robbery and kidnapping,” Mark said.
Such emergency rule, however, according to him, would not entail the removal of the affected state governors but a concerted effort aimed at tackling the problem. In addition of any police commissioner in whose jurisdiction kidnapping and armed robbery thrive. “A police commissioner cannot just sit in a place and these things are happening: he must be told in clear terms that he has failed and if a man fails he should not remain on the seat there for us to be getting excuses from him,” he said.
Reacting, President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola in a statement said there can be no greater evidence of impunity with which kidnapping is executed and its exponential growth rate than the drama of the current episode. To him, the kidnapping of the top officers of the NUJ had once again called to attention the ineffectual and grossly incompetent state of the systems responsible for security of lives and property in the country.
“What is particularly frightening, and which should be of great concern to all of us, is not only the regularity of the occurrence of high-profile kidnapping and the monetary extortion in the name of ransoms that follow, but the evidently helpless response of the security agencies to curbing the crime. We need to inquire, once again, about the capacity and present structure of the nation’s policing system to effectively rise to such challenges, especially in the context of crime prevention.” Ogunshola submitted.
In its statement, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a media watchdog, decried the pervasive state of insecurity in the country, describing it as unacceptable. According to the organisation, the abduction of the journalists including the assassination of three journalists on April 24, 2010 is an indication that the country has been turned “into a very dangerous place for journalists and other citizens.”
For Senator Annie Okonkwo representing Anambra central, the incident is one embarrassment too many. He called on the government to urgently address the situation. "I am aware that no nation exists without crimes and criminals, but then, no nation sleeps while criminals enjoy free reign,” he reasoned; regretting that “the absence of radical deterrence signal to kidnappers appear to have given them the boldness to interrupt our peace at will and go away with it.”
Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the Lagos NUJ, Deji Elumoye has dismissed insinuations that the abduction of the four journalists could have political under tones. Elumoye, while briefing journalists about the development also hinted that a twist was added to the abduction of the journalists last week. According to him, some strange persons had been calling, promising to help with the release of the kidnapped members if N500,000 was paid and a certain amount of recharge cards sent to them.
He, therefore called on fellow journalists as well as family members to be wary of fraudsters who would want to cash in on the situation to dupe them.