David Mark, Onovo and the Kidnappers

Daniel Elombah

    The Senate President David Mark canvassing for the declaration of emergency rule in states where the incident of kidnapping is rampant has added a new dimension to the discussion on kidnapping in the wake of the Kidnap of four journalists in Abia State.

    The problem here is that David Mark earns N83 million per month but berates these Kidnappers lured into the trade by unemployment.

    Also, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr. Ogbonna Onovo has admitted that there were lapses in the operation of policemen in the South-east but warned that it would not be tolerated any longer.

But the IGP admitted that his men were complicit in the kidnapping menace that has affected the South-East states economically and socially.

Chairman Lagos State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Wahab Oba, Secretary of Zone G Adolphus Okonkwo, Acting Secretary Lagos State Council Sylvester Okereke and Sola Oyeyipo were abducted last Sunday along Ikot-Ekpene- Aba road on their way from Akwa-Ibom State after an NUJ function.

Information available to elombah.com from eye witness accounts the group had just passed a police checkpoint before the incident occurred, the IGP should go beyond hypocritically lambasting the Commissioner of Police in Abia State and tell us his plan for dealing with the involvement of our policemen in this crime.

From the accounts of other journalist that escaped capture in the hands of the kidnappers, one of the guns they saw the criminals carrying was bearing police colours.

Bottom line we now have criminals neck-deep within our security services.

Instead of advancing legislations to create a modern public safety system for Nigeria as one who heads the country’s premier law making body, David Mark's recommends declaring a state of emergency which shows that the man is a heinous clown!

Of course he has his wall of security men, and drives around in bullet proof cars and doesn't care about the level of crime in the country.

Mark made his view on kidnapping known yesterday while considering a motion on the rising insecurity in the country.

“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,” said Mark.

He also called for the resignation of any police commissioner in whose jurisdiction kidnapping and armed robbery thrives. According to him,  “A police commissioner can’t sit down in a place and these things are happening; he must be told in clear terms that he has failed and if a man failed he should not remain on the seat there for us to be getting excuses from him."

But he needs to go further than mere palliatives.

The latest news is that Nigeria is inviting DETECTIVES from MOSSAD, the dreaded Israeli intelligence agency, in a last ditch effort by the Federal Government to free five journalists and two others from the camp of kidnappers.

So if these kidnappers can kidnap 4 journalist and the Police IG with his deputies relocated to Abia state and gave 24 hours mandate ,then this boys still refused to buldge and at the expiration of the mandate ,Nigeria has to import mossad; that means that very soon ,this Kidnappers will kidnap our Senators, Reps and Governors and there is nothing the police will do ,may be that time they will call CIA or MI5.

We agree with David Mark that “all those involved in kidnapping, sponsoring or supplying of arms to the perpetrators of these act must be treated like the kidnappers. Such people should be dealt with in a way and manner that would deter them from every contemplating the act again”.

Mark condemned the tendency to blame unemployment for the current upsurge in kidnapping in the South-east. “Unemployment is just a handy excuse by the perpetrators, " he argued. He said the South-east and South-south are not the only regions with unemployment problem in the country.

But the glaring fact is that kidnapping is not restricted to the South-East, The other parts of the country are also groaning in pain under the menace of this heinous crime.

The new favorite crime in Nigeria reared its ugly head in Kano with the kidnapping of a multi-millionaire businessman, Alhaji Salisu Mataba, at about 7.00 p.m. on Sunday, 11th July 2010.

Alhaji Mataba was abducted from his family home at Kurna Baba Line, Kano, by gunmen who were later paid ₦80 million in ransom.

The FG needs to create a database of the unemployed with a view to paying some kind of stipend in addition to identifying employment opportunities.

The Federal Government should set employment quota for companies that it awards contracts. The statement credited to Senate President David Mark that unemployment is not a justification for crimes is very irresponsible when he has nothing to justify the scandalous salary of senators.

In addition to the regular and legitimate salaries and allowances of N17 million and N14.99 million which senators and reps were collecting yearly and the irregular allowance of estacodes, duty tours etc; they were also collecting N192m and N140m respectively in illicit quarterly allocation.

The Senate President David Mark alone takes N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month. Senate Deputy President Ike Ekweremadu gets N150 million per quarter or N50 million a month.

Surveys of salaries and benefits of public office holders from the Baltic to the Bahamas, the Americas and the Far East and everywhere else, has showed that Ministers and Federal Legislators in Nigeria are the highest paid in the world, despite the country being among the poorest in terms of per capita income, security, social provision and living standards. On the other hand, Nigerian workers are one of the lowest paid in the world.

In Nigeria, political offices are often seen as a get-rich-quick avenue because the legitimate salaries and benefits are enormous and are probably unobtainable elsewhere in the system. Another reason is that politicians can also meddle with the public funds with impunity.

Is it any wonder that this get-rich-quick by all means attitude has trickled down to the entire populace?

The result is the explosion in the incidence of kidnapping that we are witnessing today.

Rather than talk down on the people of the South-East and the South-South, The Senate president should start by cutting down on his illicit salary and curb corruption amount the members of his political class.

After that has been done, they should get down to work and enact enabling laws to give effect to such policies as:

   1. Assignment of Phone SIM cards is tied to a verifiable ID such as state or National ID. The police should also have devised the technology to track GSM numbers used by the kidnappers to contact their victims’ relations.
   2. The Federal Road Safety Commission needs to create a national driver license database because there is none and this is scandalous.
   3. There also needs to be a national database for vehicle registration tags.
   4. A proper and corrupt-free census and national ID card scheme should carefully conducted to have a verifiable address and identity of all Nigerians.
   5. The states and local governments should partner with the Nigeria Police by providing infrastructural support such as transportation and buildings managed by these governments. Or better still State Police should be allowed.
   6. Following from this we need to look seriously at the issue of decentralizing our police force and we should have state police. Although there are strong arguments against this, but because of the situation we now find ourselves in makes state police imperative.
   7. Public safety communication centres that will receive and process emergency calls and coordinate with police command and control centres and other public safety response agencies should be provided.
   8. The entire Police Force should be overhauled. A brand new Police that will make up a new enlightened and properly remunerated policemen and women should be created.
   9. Community vigilante groups such as Bakkasi should be allowed and properly regulated.

Elombah.com condemn in strong terms the perennial and escalating state of insecurity across the country and we urge the security services to fish out the people behind the kidnap of the 4 journalists and bring them to justice.

We note that kidnapping, armed robbery attacks and assassinations are getting out of hand, and no part of Nigeria appears to be immune from the menace.

It is sad to note that the Police and other relevant security agencies seem to be impotent and bereft of ideas on how to contain these security lapses. Despite the gigantic annual budgetary allocations to the security agencies, no tangible result is realized and there is palpable failure of intelligence gathering.

It is equally unfortunate that criminals and kidnappers would pick their victims in Abia and pass through Imo to Anambra without being apprehended by the Police who mount road blocks at every check point.

How our Policemen be at the multitude of road-blocks and criminals and kidnappers still operate and drive through highways without being caught by the Police?

That is an indication of serious lapses in the system.

We also note that the impact of the insecurity of lives and properties is “sending waves of fear to prospective foreign investors and tourists thereby putting spanners in Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council."

We call for the overhaul of the nation’s security apparatus as we wonder why the policemen has never arrested these kidnappers on the highroad whereas these hoodlums drive with their captives on those roads strewn with police check points.

We note that there is a direct correlation between the deteriorating security situation in the country and the collapse of the economy.

We support the involvement of traditional ruler in finding a solution.

We urge all tiers of government to tackle poverty level by creating employment opportunities.

We do not support the introduction of capital punishment for kidnappers for that merely begs the solution.