IF anyone still doubts where the audacity of the criminals who prowl the Nigerian landscape comes from, they need not look further than the official failure to make them pay for the crimes. Apparently, armed robbers, kidnappers and terrorists of all hues are having a swell time at the expense of defenseless, hapless Nigerians, scoffing at the authority of the Nigerian State and daring the powers that be to do their worst. To be sure, arrests take place, and a few criminals end up behind bars, but the majority of the criminals have apparently seen no reason to back-track from their evil trade. They are laying a siege to communities, farmlands, roads and, indeed, virtually any space available, giving law-abiding citizens an endless nightmare. Indeed, they seem to be intent on proving the point that no citizen is beyond their reach, and that anyone who manages to escape from them at any point in time has only just postponed the evil day. This is the thought that comes to mind as you ponder the case of the kidnappers who recently shot a victim in Delta State for, of all reasons, having an ‘insufficient’ account balance!
According to reports, operatives of the Delta State Police Command arrested the three suspected kidnappers after they had collected N2 million ransom from their victim and still shot him. The suspects identified as Chukwuebuka Nka (25), Uche Okechukwu, and Somto Chukwuma, allegedly shot the victim in the leg after discovering that he did not have ‘enough money’ in his account. The command’s spokesperson, Bright Edafe, said that the suspects were arrested following a distress call that indicated that a young man had been kidnapped from his residence in Ogwashi-Uku. According to the police spokesman, the operatives tracked the suspects to a bush in Ogwashi-Uku, where the victim was rescued with a gunshot wound. Investigations led to the arrest of Chukwuebuka Nka and Uche Okechukwu in Anambra State, where the victim’s white Toyota Venza was also recovered. Thereafter, based on the suspects’ confessions, operatives raided the outlaws’ hideout in Agidiase village, Ogwashi-uku, and arrested the third suspect. The suspects then led the police to their hideout, where their operational vehicle and a network jammer circuit device were also recovered.
If anything, this story shows the depth of the depravity of the criminal mind. Why shoot someone from whom you had already seized N2m and an SUV to boot? Which money did the criminals who complained of the victim’s financial limitation keep in his account? There is in fact a distinct possibility that the money in question does not even belong to the victim. Artisans frequently receive money meant to purchase materials needed to complete clients’ jobs in their accounts and in any case, even if the money in this case actually belonged to the victim, it is certainly clear that he did not intend it to be seized by criminals, as they turned out to do in this case. In a country where the minimum wage is N70,000, it says a lot that kidnappers who found N2 million in a victim’s account could still complain that the money was insufficient, and then proceed to shoot the victim, apparently with intent to finish him off. To these criminals, the victim, never mind the fact that he rode a Toyota SUV, had the audacity to be poor, and must pay for his poverty. No country that means to make meaningful progress allows criminals to subject law-abiding citizens to such harrowing experiences. Government exists, and collects tax, for the primary purpose of ensuring that citizens are safe and secure.
Of course, this Delta kidnapping case, like the many others that innocent Nigerians confront on a daily basis, boils down to governmental failure. Over the years, and particularly in recent years, the Nigerian government has failed to protect citizens. Politicians have put the people’s lives in peril while living atrociously luxurious lives with their money, and they are apparently set in their ways because, like in the case of the criminals who lay the land waste, there are hardly any consequences for their actions in office. In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Somtochukwu Maduagwu, a prominent journalist, recently lost her life while trying to escape from the robbers who invaded her residence. So many citizens have lost their lives in such harrowing circumstances that highlight the dysfunctionality of the Nigerian state.
The Delta kidnapping victim is fortunate to be alive, but many citizens have lost their lives in such circumstances, and their voices will never be heard again, except symbolically. The government is duty-bound to ensure that the criminals who subject law-abiding citizens to agony are fished out and punished to the fullest extent allowed by law. Leaving law-abiding citizens at the mercy of criminals makes utter mockery of the law. It sends the dangerous signal that crime actually does pay, and that those who abide by the law are wasting their time. We urge the government to bear this point in mind and make crime unattractive even to criminals.