Mass Passenger Abductions Giving Commuters Nightmare — Daily Trust Investigation

Daily Trust Infographics

Kidnapping of passengers along Nigeria’s highways is fast becoming a lucrative business for criminals

Over one hundred passengers have reportedly been abducted in seven different routes across the country in 2017.

Daily Trust Investigations report continues:

Some of the routes include the Obajana-Lokoja, Ajaokuta-Lokoja and Kabba-Obajana roads, all in Kogi State. Also, there is the Auchi-Abuja and Benin-Akure roads in Edo State, the Abuja-Kaduna road, Abuja-Kaduna expressway and Birnin Gwari-Kaduna road.

In recent months, on routes in certain parts of the country where kidnapping of commuters was not in vogue, this year, fresh activities of criminal elements have infiltrated the roads. These include the Elele-Isiokpo, Rumuji, East-West and Ndele-Elele roads in Rivers State.

There is more, roads in Ondo State have made latest passenger abduction big news with incidences along Owo-Ikare, Owo-Abuja and Oba-Akoko routes on September 14, barely a week ago. The latter incident involved no fewer than five travellers, reportedly abducted by gunmen. But the Ondo State Police Command said it had rescued five of the kidnapped victims and the Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr. Femi Joseph, promised that the police would apprehend the culprits.

On August 28, there were reports where gunmen shot dead a passenger and kidnapped four persons in a commercial vehicle along Owo-Ikare road in Ondo State. Hours later, families of the victims were said to have been contacted for a ransom of ₦15 million on each victim. The family was able to negotiate to ₦1m per person.

Rivers State has recorded not less than four cases of kidnapping of passengers this year. On the same August 28, eleven passengers were said to have been abducted in a bus on Ndele-Elele axis of East-West road in Emuohua Local Government Area. Nineteen persons were in the vehicle when the event took place. One of the victims, Mr. Bright Welekwe, who managed to escape, said three of the passengers had alighted earlier, so 17 people were forced into the bush. He added that when he got to the road where their bus was abandoned, he met four other passengers who had escaped. The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Ahmed Zaki, confirmed the incident.

In July, operatives of the Rivers State Police Command successfully rescued 14 passengers who were kidnapped on the 3rd of that month by gunmen. Reports said the rescue came less than 24 hours after the bus passengers were forced away around Rumuji in Emohua LGA of the state. The passengers were travelling from Warri in Delta State to Port-Harcourt when the bus conveying them was hijacked. N14 million was later demanded for their release, but due to a tip-off, the police, after a shoot-out, rescued the passengers.

It was however different in the case of the kidnap along Elele Isiokpo road in Ikwere LGA of Rivers State, where it took three days for the Rivers State Police Command to simply confirm the incident, it was reported. The PPRO in the state, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, said the seven kidnapped persons were travelling in a Siena vehicle from Abuja to Port Harcourt. A woman was pregnant among the seven, two of them members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) who were on their way from a meeting in Abuja. There has not been any record of a ransom demand.

Incidents of kidnapping on the Kaduna-Abuja road have made news headlines, abating just recently, due to increased police presence on the route. On June 9, a member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Isa Salihu, was reportedly kidnapped along with three other persons on the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road. He was abducted while travelling to Birnin Gwari from the state capital. The incident occurred just a week after the lawmaker representing Takai/Sumaila Federal constituency of Kano State, Garba Durbunde, was abducted at Jere while returning to Abuja from Kano.

More kidnapping across the country

In the same month of June, about 20 people were abducted by armed men along Abuja-Kaduna expressway on their way to Kaduna. They were ordered to alight from their vehicles and were forced into the bush near Akilibu Village. A relation of one of the victims said the news of the abduction was brought to them by a driver who escaped. He narrated that the abductors were stopping vehicles coming from Abuja like an armed robbery operation. The source counted 30 gunmen. The driver, on the other hand, was able to escape after he pleaded to be allowed to take a rest and the criminals agreed due to his age and health condition, but asked one of their men to stay with him until he was able to catch his breath. He said when the kidnappers had walked some distance and were out of sight, the man watching over him decided to track them so he could be sure of the route they were taking. The driver said it was then that he decided to run away but that no one pursued him. Surprisingly, when he got to the expressway, he found his car with the others where they left them with the key in the ignition. 

Recently, between September 17 and 18, four family members were abducted and a car snatched at gunpoint. On Sunday, gunmen abducted three men and a woman in Kakau, a few kilometers from Kaduna, along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway. The four persons had gone to a relaxation spot on the highway when about 12 armed men invaded the spot and took them away.

Seven persons were said to have been initially taken by the gunmen but three of them escaped before the rest were moved deep into the bush. A family source confirmed that one of the kidnapped persons was released on Monday after an undisclosed amount of money was paid as ransom.

Commuters avoid dangerous routes

Due to cases of kidnapping, many travelers now avoid the Kaduna-Abuja expressway while traveling to Abuja even though the route is shorter, while others travel in modest vehicles and during the day, as the kidnappers mostly operate early in the morning or at late evenings.

However, some level of success has also been recorded by security agencies. There was the capture of six notorious kidnappers terrorizing the Kaduna-Abuja highway, courtesy of the joint security outfit, Operation Yaki. The suspects were picked up by surveillance patrol teams in a joint operation with the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Teams (IRT) and with the support from the Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU). Those arrested included the leader of the gang, Adamu Mamman, a 35-year-old from Amana village in Igabi LGA. Also arrested were Ali Rabo aka Blakky of Liman Ibada village in Chikun LGA and Awwalu Ahmad aka Mota of Rijana village, who is the main informant of the gang. Others were Shehu Idris Shagari, 27, of Gadan Gayan village in Igabi LGA, Umar Antijo, 27, of Rijana and Babangida Abdullahi, also of Rijana, a receiver of stolen cattle, phones and laptops. They were arrested at various locations, all in Kaduna, and confessed to several kidnapping of motorists along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.

Earlier in January, along the Benin-Akure express road in Edo State, three secondary school teachers in Ebomosi Secondary School, Ugbogiobo Village, Ovia North-East LGA were reportedly kidnapped by suspected herdsmen while returning from work. Three other female teachers who were said to be in the company of the abducted teachers were allowed to go by the kidnappers.

Students of the school had abandoned classes and took to the Benin-Akure express road to protest their teachers’ abduction. They set up bonfires on the road and left passengers and motorists stranded for many hours. The kidnappers were said to have demanded ₦10 million ransom on each of the teachers.

Another kidnapping took place along the Auchi-Abuja road, also in January. It involved one Chief Friday Akpoyibo, an ex-local government chairman and two other victims. ₦100 million was demanded for their release.

Elsewhere in Kogi State, gunmen abducted four staff of Mopa-Muro LGA in January, along the Kabba-Obajana road on their way to Lokoja to attend an appeal committee screening exercise. They were Olu Abraham, Fehintola Osho, Balogun Blessing and the Head of Works, Mopa-Muro LGA.

Two other kidnap incidents within the same month of January happened along Obajana-Lokoja and Ajaokuta-Lokoja roads respectively. The former involved a bank manager and four other victims, while the latter involved eight travellers and a ₦20 million demand was made. However, the Kogi State Police Command later revealed that it had rescued the eight travellers. The command’s spokesman, Williams Aya, who confirmed this, said the gunmen had waylaid the commuters near the Itobe Bridge along the Ajaokuta-Lokoja road and taken them into the bush.

He said the abductors called relatives of the victims and demanded for ₦20 million ransom, adding that the police upon getting wind of the incident, swung into action and were able to rescue all the victims unhurt.

Aya said the police engaged the abductors in a gun duel with some of them escaping with bullet wounds. He said among the items recovered from the fleeing suspects were one locally-made gun, a cutlass and other items.

Capital punishment for kidnapping

But despite the fact that states across the country have made kidnapping a capital offence, abductions still continue.

About 16 states have so far passed laws making abduction for ransom a capital punishment. These are Lagos, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Benue, Rivers, Enugu, Abia, Kogi, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Imo, Cross River and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Investigations by Daily Trust have shown that although some of the laws have been passed since 2009, there has been no execution of convicted persons.

Apart from the recent conviction of abductors of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, most of the kidnapping cases are at various stages of prosecution in the courts.

The anti-kidnapping laws across the states made provision for capital punishment for kidnap suspects whose victims died in their custody. The law equally specified life sentence for convicted suspects and in some instances, jail terms between 10 and 30 years for convicted kidnappers who didn’t kill their victims.