Atop security expert, Mr. Ogbu Attah, has said that some Nigerians involved in kidnapping for ransom must have been forced into committing such crime due to the current parlous state of the economy.
Attah, who works with a multi-national manufacturing company in Lagos, said in an interview that the crime of kidnapping for ransom crept into the country over 10 years ago.
He argued that nobody would go into kidnapping for the fun of just abducting people.
He told our correspondent that the non-availability of gainful employment and sundry economic issues forced Nigerian youths to devise different antisocial means, including kidnapping for ransom, to earn a living.
The security expert said, “People link these recent kidnapping incidents to recession, but you and I know that kidnapping came into the country as a ‘profession’ about 10 years ago. Initially, it looked alien to our culture as a people, but now we have known that it is a serious crime affecting everyone because if you have not been kidnapped, your family member or someone you know would have been kidnapped.
“When the Boko haram issue started, Nigerians did not take them very seriously. And just like a theory in Criminology, “Broken Window Theory”, which says that when an event starts in a small way, people don’t pay much attention to it. They would think, ‘it’s just a minor thing’. Gradually, that thing will be gaining ground until it gets to a point where they cannot control it. That was how insurgency gained ground and kidnapping, too, especially in the Southern parts. We toyed with it, thinking it was probably meant to intimidate people”.
Attah further noted that since kidnapping for ransom started, there had not been serious punishment for offenders.
“People pay ransom, because there are no punitive measures put in place to serve as a deterrent. People simply do things with impunity. Of course, the laws are not strong enough, if there is any,” he said. Speaking on kidnappers’ mode of operation, Attah said, “Kidnapping is a very technical operation.
So, kidnapping will continue to grow until the country establishes national anti-kidnapping forces or until every state promulgates laws against it with a criminal justice system that works. But if industries are folding up, no electricity, no infrastructure, and no equal educational opportunity for youth, as we have today, they will continue to device means of survival and kidnapping will continue to thrive until we do something right about it. Nobody kidnaps for fun, they always kidnap people or targets they will get ransom from.”
