MEET FRANK OSHANUGOR
By Frank Oshanugor
It is no longer news that the average Nigerian in different parts of the country now lives at the mercy of kidnappers. Everyday we are saddled with gory stories of kidnap for ransom in schools, cities, villages, highways and everywhere. Millions and billions of naira and some times dollars are demanded and paid as ransom and occasionally, lives of victims are lost in the process.
Due to the low risk and high yield phenomenon associated with kidnap for ransom, many criminally-minded persons now take kidnapping as a life vocation in Nigeria. They believe so much in making quick wealth through kidnap for ransom.
The get-rich-quick syndrome by earliest kidnappers like Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike (a.k.a. Evans) who became instant billionaires; regrettably, was the eye-opener for more criminals to enlist in kidnap for ransom to the extent that we now live in kidnappers’ regime.
It will not be wrong for one to conclude in the present circumstance that kidnappers currently ‘rule’ Nigeria as the fear of kidnappers is now the beginning of wisdom for many Nigerians. Otherwise, how many average rich Nigerians can conveniently travel to their villages for one ceremony or the other in current time and openly show off their presence without being trailed by kidnappers. No one is safe again except those who surround themselves 24 hours with security apparati of the state. Children can now arrange the kidnap of their parents and other loved ones ostensibly to get some money without minding the moral, social, legal and other implications of such act.
Our country Nigeria has been the worse for it as many people can no longer enjoy the comfort of safely walking on the street, travelling on the highways, visiting their villages, going to their farms etc as kidnappers are lurking around everywhere.
As a nation, the hues and cries of the citizenry against kidnapping have continued to reverberate such that it has topped the list in our country’s crime index. Concerned about the scourge of kidnapping a few years ago, the then President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government in 2020 introduced the compulsory linkage of citizens’ National Identification Number (NIN) to Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of mobile phones for easy tracking of all telephone conversations.
The linkage of NIN to SIM data was essentially to combat crime, especially kidnappings and phone-related crimes. Nigerians had seen it as a welcome development as the then Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami kept assuring that it would be easy to track kidnappers and other criminals by the security agencies through the phone numbers and NIN.
I may not have the actual statistics to ascertain how many kidnappers (so far) have been caught through tracking of their phones or those of their captives by security agencies since the linkage of NIN to telephone numbers, but I can safely assert that since that development by the Buhari administration, kidnapping incidents have increased across the length and breadth of the country with little success in tracking the kidnappers.
The question now, is why has it been difficult for the kidnappers to be tracked by security agencies? Is it that the security agencies particularly the police, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Military lack the needed manpower to do the tracking when occasions demand? Or is it that the technology available is not sophiscated enough to access the phones in use by kidnappers to make demand for ransom?
Can it also be a function of bureaucratic bottlenecks often associated with governance in Nigeria whereby several layers of approval are needed before the tracking officials of the security agency where kidnap incident is officially reported by those concerned, are allowed to commence tracking operation?
Interestingly, these questions find correlation with the assertion made in January, 2024 by Pantami when he reacted to a tweet by the Media Aide to Buhari, Mr. Bashir Ahmed. Ahmed had raised alarm about the increasing incidence of kidnapping for ransom, calling for new legislation or the revision of existing laws to enforce the death penalty as punishment for banditry and kidnapping.
In his reaction to Ahmed’s tweet, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami blamed Nigeria’s security agencies for not utilising the NIN-SIM data to tackle rising kidnapping for ransom and banditry incidence. “NIN-SIM policy has been working. However, the relevant institutions fighting criminality are to be requested to ensure they utilise it effectively when a crime is committed. Lack of utilising it, is the main problem not the policy,” Pantami asserted.
Believably, government is often said to be a continuum, therefore one would expect that the revolution began by the Buhari administration in trying to use NIN-SIM to identify any phone caller or conversation should be fine tuned in a manner that can guarantee quick tracking of any kidnapping related incident.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his pre-election RENEWED HOPE campaign had promised Nigerians a safer country once he became the President. He made us all to believe that he has the capacity to surpass the performance of his predecessor with respect to security of the citizenry. Regrettably, reverse is the case now.
One would expect his administration to take Pantami’s accusation seriously by probing deeper to find out why the security agencies are not utilising the NIN-SIM policy of tracking kidnappers and other phone-related criminals.
Government should find out from the various security agencies what have been their challenges in utilising the NIN-SIM tracking because it is largely believed that once the tracking system is maximally utilised, the kidnappers would have a second thought.
Now is the time for the government to show seriousness and utilise any workable solution towards checkmating the surging incidence of kidnap for ransom. Many Nigerians are unarguably passing through a threatening phase that should not be allowed to fester for too long.
