 In the last two weeks, cases of kidnaping assumed a dangerous and frightening dimension. Now kidnaping is not new in Nigeria, but since 2014 when schools of secondary school girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram Islamic sect, the country has not experienced mass kidnap. But on March the 3rd this year, Nigerians woke up to the needs of the kidnap of 112 internally displaced persons from their camp in Gambarungala in Borno State. But just as Nigerians were still discussing their development and wondering whether the country is relapsing into the period of 2014, the Rothnecks last week, March 7th, struck again in Kaduna State where they abducted 287 children from a primary in about 187 from a secondary school. However, just as the dust was about, the incident was about to settle. Kadura village also in Kaduna was invaded on March 11 and schools kidnapped. Earlier before the Kadura incident about 15 students were equally kidnapped in Sokota State. The kidnappers of the 287 children initially asked for 40 trillion Naira. Some motorcycles and cars is ransom before the children could be released. But on Thursday, March 15th, reduced it to 1 billion Naira. They have also given the government 15 days to make the 1 billion Naira available or they would kill all the children. Security analyst Okichukon Wango joins us now to discuss these and maybe profile solutions that the government seems to be oblivious to. Good evening to you Okichukon. Many thanks for joining us on Denise now. Good evening. Justin, how are you? Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you once again. Good to hear from you this evening. Let's just try and dive into the security issues and see what we can do to profile solutions because Nigerians have just been kidnapped and they cannot even sleep with both eyes closed as it were. Well, it seems as though kidnapping has become a thriving business. With powerful and influential Nigerians behind the trade, do you feel the same way? I think that the kidnapping has, as far back as 2020, reports already indicated that kidnapping has remained the biggest business in Nigeria, the biggest business and the greatest threat to security in Nigeria. And as far as I'm concerned, at the rate that we're going, it puts a question to the legitimacy of government because it is only in the country that has no government that this kind of thing can be happening. You know, hundreds of people kidnapped and it's not something that happens in an hour. It takes time. So between the time people are kidnapped and they're taken through the pathways to where they are kept, no security agency intervention, no government. And it keeps happening every now and then. So this is no longer something to, you know, I mean, it's no longer a joke. And I think that government needs to show political will indeed because a lot of resources have been put into security, you know, security funding, equipment and training and all that. Yes, this things keep happening. So it is not difficult to reach a conclusion that there are people, powerful people who are behind this syndicate who don't want it to happen. And if the government really wants to stop this, the technology have been put in place. Otherwise, why wouldn't it just be meant to go through the hassle of, you know, raising with NIN and all that, all this technology and yet people make phone calls, demand ransom and get paid ransom and nobody is arrested? No, no, this is not, this can happen in a normal situation. Okay, now, some Nigerians are alleging that those behind the organized crime could be within the could be state actors as it were, especially as the government seems to be chasing its own tail in looking for solutions. How do you reach in all of that? Remember that as far back as in 2014, during the time of President Jonah, we started hearing about, you know, people in government, people within security agencies being part of the syndicate. During the time of President Buhari, we also had government spokesperson, you know, say that from time to time that they know those who are behind, you know, kidnapping and insecurity, you know, about what we never saw was government taking concrete action to deal with this, to identify them, to isolate them and prosecute them. So we keep hearing. So government themselves keep confirming that they know those behind this thing, but what we have failed to see is action. So it is not in doubt, it's no longer speculative anyway. I never want to say that government knows those who are involved in all this crime. But what we don't understand is why they are doing nothing about it. Why nobody is arrested? Why people are kidnapped? About the recent incident now, the bandits are demanding ransom. Right now, they are actually giving an ultimatum asking the government to, asking for a ransom payment of about one billion naira. But the person in Balatini has said emphatically that government would not pay a dime to get the victims back. Do you agree with his stance on this? The work happened in Delta State is quite unfortunate, quite condemnable. It is not right for people to unleash that level of attack on military personnel. Usually what this happens, what happens when this type of thing happens is that the military have a tendency to go on a repressor. And in that repressor, it is not just the perpetrators that are, I mean, in many cases those who committed the crime would have left the scene. So those who bear the brunt are the ordinary citizens. It's unfortunate, I commiserate with the families of the military officers who commiserate with the military, but I urge restraint on the part of the military so that they don't use indiscriminate and needless force to deal with this situation. What is needed is some level of intelligence to identify the actual perpetrators and make sure that they are brought to account. What can really be done in as much as the President has come out to say that those who are found culprit would actually face the music and be, they will actually face the full wrath of the Lord. But in the short run, because residents are fleeing, how can normalcy, what can be done for normalcy to be returned in the shortest time to those communities? Yeah, I think what is necessary to be done at this stage is for a lot of intelligence needs to be deployed. You know, there are leaders in those communities, you know, there are, I'm not sure that every, I'm sure that not every member of the community is involved in this, you know, criminality. There is also a possibility that some people in the community would have some clue about those actually involved. So is to engage with the leaders of the community and with the security authorities within the, with the states. It would be a view to identifying those actually responsible and not to criminalize every member of the community, but also to look at the, look at ways of addressing the cost of this, you know, communal dispute that has led to this needless killing of our, our, our, our soldiers. All right. Thank you so much. Okay. Chukon Wangoma is Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Center. Rulak, thanks for all of the useful insights that you have shared with us on the news now tonight. Thank you. It's my pleasure. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. 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