By Babs Oyetoro, Linus Aleke, David Lawani, Cajetan Mmuta, and Deborah Onyofufeke
An international oil company, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, has issued a security advisory to all its staff members to be wary of traveling to 19 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over what it termed kidnap for ransom threat in Nigeria.
This follows the disturbing trend of insecurity across the country that attained the crescendo in the early part of the year with the 19 states including the FCT as worst hit so far.
Despite the concerted efforts made by security operatives to curtail this onslaught visited on innocent populace by the bandits, the menace keeps escalating and becoming more profound in some states within the federation.
According to the advisory to all the company staff, titled, “Security advisory: Kidnap for ransom threat in Nigeria,” dated February 1, 2024, which was sighted by ThisNigeria yesterday, kidnap for ransom is fuelled by the bountiful ransom being paid by the family members of the victims.
The security advisory stated that the kidnappers no longer discriminate based on nationality, wealth, age, or social standing as all individuals are potential targets.
The situation becomes bad, according to the advisory, as the abductors have made incursions into the residential areas to kidnap people with little or no resistance.
It added, “There have been observable increase in kidnap for ransom (K4R) incidents across Nigeria. While our safe operating zones remain incident-free, it is crucial to be mindful of the following trend.
“Ransom targets: Kidnappers no longer discriminate based on nationality, wealth, age, or social standing. All individuals are potential targets, making it imperative for all categories of staff to be vigilant.
“Shift to residential abduction: A notable shift in tactics is observed as perpetrators increasingly target residential areas instead of traditional locations like highways and farms. This demands heightened awareness, particularly within our homes and communities.
“Escalating ransom amount: Ransom amounts have been soared. Despite legal restrictions, families are compelled to pay due to perceived inefficiencies in official interventions. Economic challenges, including high inflation and unemployment rate, contribute to the exponential growth of ransom payments.
“Mass adoption: Kidnappers strategically opt for mass abductions, realising the economic advantage of such operation. The tactics pose a collective risk, necessitating comprehensive security measures.”
However, the following states have become a haven for kidnappers and more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
The states are Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Benue, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra, Kogi, Abia, Kwara, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger, Edo, Oyo, Rivers, Osun, Ekiti, and FCT Abuja.
In the aforementioned states, the bandits wreaked havoc on the citizens killing, raping, and sometimes request for ransom from the family members of their victims.
*Heightened insecurity provokes fresh call for state police
As of today, citizens can no longer go to bed with their two eyes closed due to fear of terrorism, kidnapping, or bandit attacks.
Recall that on Christmas Eve, in 2023, a criminal gang wielding dangerous and sophisticated weapons attacked Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi LGAs of Plateau State and killed no fewer than 100 villagers, in 12 communities.
The affected villages are Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat and Butura Kampani.
Exactly one month after, more than 30 persons were again killed in Plateau State in the early hours of Wednesday 24 January, by gunmen who attacked Kwahaslalek village, in
Mangu Local Government Area of the state.
On Monday, January 31, 2024, two traditional rulers identified as Oba David Ogunsakin, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti; and Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Onimojo of Omojola-Ekiti, were also killed by yet-to-be-identified assailants while returning from a meeting in Irele-Ekiti.
The FCT is not spared as well as the hoodlums were having a field day going into peoples’ homes at ungodly hours to abduct defenceless citizens without any resistance from the security operatives.
A civil servant who did not want her name in print said that she cancelled her planned trip to grace her younger sister’s wedding because she could not afford to travel by road due to a high level of insecurity and could not also afford the exorbitant return air ticket to Anambra State.
“I wanted to travel by air because it is safer than the roads, but when I checked the price of a return ticket to Anambra, it was N200,000. I felt it was better to send the money to my younger sister to support her wedding instead of wasting it on transportation alone. I cannot travel by road with all this story of kidnapping here and there,” she explained.
She also told our correspondent that her middle-aged son, heaved a sigh of relief when she told him that they would not be travelling for Christmas last year.
She noted that her son said he would prefer to stay indoors in Abuja and watch television than go to the village and be kidnapped.
The heightened insecurity across the federation has once again provoked a renewed call for state police in the country.
Kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, armed robbery, cultism, secessionist agitations, and other emerging security threats have continued to increase in leaps and bounds, hence the recent call by sub-national authorities and citizens for the decentralisation of the nation’s policing system.
The recent deployment of 1,466 Community Watch Corps personnel by the Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, to seven local government areas to tackle security challenges alongside the Nigeria Police signposts the imperative of state policing.
*State police may solve the situation- governors, other Nigerians
The former Governor of Katsina State, Bello Masari, in 2011, called on citizens to defend themselves against bandits, and terrorists.
The call which sparked a debate on the need for state police, led to some critics describing centralised police structure as anachronistic.
Speaking on the renewed call for state police, the Chairman of, the Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria, Enugu State Chapter, Dr Ambrose Igboke, said that centralized police structure is no longer a viable option in modern Nigeria, arguing that every crime is local and needs the security intelligence to apprehend criminals.
According to him, “A situation where the Inspector-General of police is to oversee the crime committed in every nook and cranny, has never been effective.
“In advanced societies, policing is at the community level. To effectively police Nigeria, state police should be introduced.”
On whether the sub-national authorities would not abuse the system, Igboke said, “While we understand the dangers of misuse by draconian Governors, the ultimate vigilance rests with the citizens. The state police should have a funding format where the funds are directly paid to them. Nigeria cannot run away from state police”.
A retired professor of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Damian Opata, while expressing support for the urgent establishment of state police, a well-trained and well-equipped state police will make a difference.
He noted that there are very worrisome incidents of kidnapping, banditry, and all manner of criminalities in the country today, adding that this rising criminality has greatly overwhelmed the centralised policing system.
Opata said, “The state police personnel will have more local knowledge of criminals. They will also, probably, be able to obtain more information about criminals and their ways of operation. If states have enough well-trained, well-equipped, well-funded, and very well-supervised personnel, these will be able to cover more rural areas where criminals operate. As such, there will be prompt responses to cases of criminality.
“State policing could introduce competitiveness across the states. When there is information about states doing well in policing, there will likely be a tendency for other less-performing states to emulate the more effective ones.
“More importantly, various state police personnel should be properly educated on treating citizens equally, irrespective of states apprehended persons come from. There should be nothing like “statism”, in this context, bias, prejudice, and ethnic stereotypes, in the discharge of duties by state police personnel”.
The retired scholar affirmed that there must be well-established policy frameworks and guidelines that allow for seamless relationships between federal and state police agencies and personnel.
On his part, the Head of the Department of Political Science, Benue State University Makurdi, Dr Pine Atah differs in his opinion saying that state policing is not the solution to rising insecurity in the country.
He observed that the security crisis is a mere symptom of a deeper national crisis.
Nigeria’s security architecture, he said, is in dire need of radical overhauling to attend to these challenges.
“First, its intelligence system has to be upgraded to the status of global best practices. Our security must be intelligence-driven. Two, the technology of security must be of global standard. Three, upgrade the skills of our security personnel in the various strata of security challenges they are being confronted with. Fourth, national integration and peace-building strategies must be evolved fast too,” Atah explained.
A security expert, Dr Kabir Adamu, said that the reality is that now Nigerians feel vulnerable and are exposed to a multifaceted threat spectrum that affects them in different ways.
Adamu who is also the Managing Director of Beacon Consulting Limited, noted that the intensity of this increases as we move farther away from city centres to villages and rural communities where the government security forces presence/deployment is lean.
This, he said is putting pressure on state governors as it questions the very legitimacy of the social contract, adding, “This is why we are witnessing a clamour for state policing”.
According to him, “Interestingly, the governors and other political office holders who are behind this clamour are not being sincere with Nigerians and their citizens.
“This is because they know that only a constitutional amendment will achieve state police. They are yet to disclose how this constitutional change will be achieved. Sincerity will require the governors to mobilize the federal and state legislatures to support the call for state police”.
The Federal Government, he argued is disposed to state policing according to the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“It is also worthy of note that the Police Act 2020 provides for community policing where we are meant to have a community policing committee in each ward and police constabulary. The policies for these have been formulated 100 per cent by the Ministry of Police Affairs.
“The challenge is that political considerations have limited the ability of the IGP to achieve 100 per cent success with these two initiatives that could have sufficed pending the constitutional amendment that will allow state police,” he explained.
As the discussion continues, just last week, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors’ forum paid a visit to Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State at the Government House in Jos.
During the visit, which was attended by the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Ahamadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, Peter Mbah of Enugu State and Godwin Obaseki of Edo State. These governors expressed full support for the creation of state police.
Speaking, Governor Mohammed, decried the rising security challenges across the country while he added that the state police would complement the efforts of the conventional security agencies.
According to him, state police will provide an opportunity for governors to handle the security situation in their respective states with ease.
“The ratio of police to the citizens is very low and the governors know the peculiarity of their states and how to tackle this challenge. So, we have been advocating this.
“There is a need for the decentralisation of the security apparatus so that we can deliver good governance by having state police.
“Again, it will allow us to engage the structure of the security agencies, training our youths and making sure the rules of engagement are not abused and there are no extrajudicial killings.
“We will work in tandem with the established best global practice than being forced to be using vigilante and even at that we are working with the security agencies, but we are still being accused of pursuing our interest.
“We can see what is happening in Zamfara and the Amotekun in the South-West where citizens are sleeping with their eyes closed,” he said.
Meanwhile, legal luminary, Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), disagreed with proponents of state police.
He explained that it was adopted before, and it was abused by the politicians who used the state police for their gains.
He said, “So you know, my father was a politician. I know that some independent candidates were arrested by the local police and dragged to the customary court for criminal matters just to stop them from contesting the election.
“Something happened that led to the discontinuance of the state police. Before we restore, we must go and sit down, consider those things, and see whether they can happen again because if they happen now, they will be more deadly.
“There’s no provision for state police in the constitution and what we need to do is to amend the constitution first before we can make any meaningful progress,” Ahamba argued.
*Drop in interstate travel
As for interstate travel, commercial drivers said there’s a massive drop in the number of people who travel now compared to a few years back.
They said it became really obvious last year how fewer people travelled by road and it got worse this year.
Jimoh Adamu a transporter said “As of 2020 there was COVID-19 and lock yet we had people that travelled more. In a day we used to load about five buses and seven or eight Sienna cars but this has drastically reduced now.
“Things have changed. Even Christmas period we used to load 10 times more than our normal schedule, this year’s Christmas was not like that. There is general apathy as people are scared to travel again because they are afraid.
According to a commuter, Ezekiel Onani, I have lost interest in road transportation. He also said he is only embarking on this trip because he has to be there for his Father’s funeral.
“I used to love to travel by road because it was so much fun for me but not anymore. It has become scary now”.
*No cause for alarm, says FG
The Federal Government last week said it was taking the fight to criminals’ dens, with promising results.
The government also said that all threats were being boldly confronted and that within the last week, several bandits, kidnappers, and militants had been neutralized or arrested.
It, however, regretted the resurgent crisis in Plateau, assuring that all perpetrators of violence in the country were being brought to book and that justice would be done, and peace restored in all affected communities.
The assurances were contained in a statement issued by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, with the title “Amidst Challenges, Nigeria Will Forge Ahead.”
He said, “There is no downplaying the reality of the challenging season that we find ourselves in as a nation: the impact of inflation on personal and household budgets, and the threats to security in parts of the country.
“But that is only part of the story. Just as important are the various bold measures that the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is taking to decisively confront all of these challenges.
“We fully acknowledge the duty and the responsibility of care that the Federal Government owes to every Nigerian, across the lines of age, gender, religion, ethnicity, and social class.
“In the area of security, all threats are being boldly confronted. We are taking the fight to the criminals’ dens, with promising results. Within the last week, several bandits, kidnappers, and militants have been neutralized or arrested.
“The resurgent crisis in Plateau State is, indeed, highly regrettable, and we assure that all perpetrators of violence there, and everywhere else in the country, are being brought to book. Justice will be done, and peace will be restored in all affected communities.
“We salute the gallantry of security and intelligence agencies who are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we are safe in our homes and on the highways and that criminals have no breathing space.”
