Hector Igbikiowubo
28 December 2008
column
THEY are taken unawares at odd hours by balaclava wearing youths and whisked away to unknown destinations by their captors, leaving on their trail anguish and sorrow.
A ransom note is posted and loved ones rally round to meet the demand.
Toddlers, the aged and infirm, all of Nigerian extraction, are not spared the reign of terror and, even after freedom is regained, the victims remain psychologically scared for life.
This is the continuation of the wave of a successful campaign of kidnapping expatriates for ransom in the Niger Delta which has gained currency as the key that unlocks the vaults of the rich. Idle unemployed youths, in places like Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Abia, Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Lagos states now take to kidnapping and have been known to accept N15,000 (about $110) as ransom for release of their captives - escalating the incidence of kidnapping beyond the realm of agitation for resource control to a wanton state of criminality hitherto unseen.
Niger Delta militants
Last weekend, two workers of UC Rusal, a Russian aluminium company operating in Ikot Abasi, the eastern Niger Delta were kidnapped at Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, by yet to be identified gunmen.
The incident brings to more than 200 the number of foreigners snatched in the area since 2006. Militant elements behind some of the kidnappings claim they are agitating for resource control and want to draw attention to the state of neglect and environmental degradation wrought by over 50 years of crude oil exploration and production.
In the beginning:
CrisisWatch, a group tracking conflicts in strategic flash points across the globe, reports that control over natural resources is the key driver of conflict in the Niger Delta, adding that failures to deliver basic developmental needs have left the population polarised and disenfranchised, whilst corruption and violence have become accepted as valid means to achieve political and social aims. The current conflict in the Niger Delta is driven by oil politics.
The peaceful clamour for change and justice for the population of the Niger Delta was led throughout the 1990s by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). Headed by Ken Saro-Wiwa, their struggle received international attention and when Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged, on 10 November, 1995, with eight other Ogoni activists, the world responded with collective condemnation.
Although this peaceful action for change continues to date in the Niger Delta, it is perceived by many as having failed to deliver, and, therefore, violence is a more attractive and acceptable option for many of today's disengaged youth.
There were low intensity ethnic and community conflicts in the Niger Delta during the 1990s. The first real heightening of the conflict dynamic occurred in Warri in 1997 and continued on and off until 2003. This tri-ethnic conflict cost thousands of lives, immense human suffering and extensive loss to material investment. It laid the foundation for many of the militant groups that now dominate the general perception of the conflict in the Niger Delta.
The use of political thugs to secure the 2003 elections resulted in the rise of the first seriously recognised militia group calling for substantive restructuring of the Niger Delta society and the removal of the oil companies. Dokubo Asari turned against his political paymaster, and created the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF).
The international prominence of this group grew as they threatened the Western oil infrastructure, contributing to global oil prices rising above $50 per barrel. Throughout 2004, the NDPVF fought not only the state security forces but also the right-wing Niger Delta Vigilante Services (NDVS) headed by Ateke Tom, a self-confessed political thug. The conflict between these two groups directly claimed hundreds of lives.
2006 witnessed an increase in the boldness of militia groups and the intensity of the damage they inflict on the oil industry and the state. The arrest of Asari was followed by the rise of a new militia, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). From January that year, the wave of violence resulted in at least four kidnappings a month and numerous battles between the state security forces and militia groups, increasing the pervading sense in society that the conflict will steadily increase.
The impact of this violence has not only been huge on the lives of the population, it has also had a significant impact on world oil prices by shutting-in almost one million barrels per day. The response to this mounting conflict and reign of impunity has been to buy off the leaders of violence at both the state and federal levels.
This approach has failed and will continue to fail because, for every individual that is bought off, there are twenty others ready to take his place and commit a greater level of violence in order to justify their own pay-off. By February 2007, it became glaring that efforts to buy off leaders of violence had failed to achieve much.
The multinational oil companies, which suffered the brunt of these attacks, engaged the services of security experts which managed to mitigate the impact on their personnel through improved surveillance and improved policing. However, the efficacy of kidnapping for ransom was not lost on criminal elements that proceeded to exploit it viciously.
Escalation:
Since first quarter 2007, the incidence of ransom taking of victims of Nigerian extraction even beyond the Niger Delta, has grown by leaps and bounds. Between then and today, there have been over 300 reported incidents.
In Imo State, a man was reported to have arranged the abduction of his parents and proceeded to make a ransom demand of N2 million on his siblings who live abroad. When he was finally apprehended, he was reported to have asked his parents if they weren't happy he was the one behind the incident, wondering whether they would rather be abducted by strangers.
In Lagos State, a JSS 3 student was abducted by unknown gangsters and a ransom demand of N250, 000. 00 made on his grand father, a retired Customs officer. When three days later the money was not forthcoming, the kidnappers accepted the N15, 000.00 made available by the grand father. For two months after the victim was released, he refused to go beyond the walls of his home.
In Rivers and Bayelsa states, both hotbeds of incidents of kidnapping for ransom, no day goes by without reports of one person or the other being taken. In 2007, the mother of Celestine Omehia, one time governor of Rivers State, was abducted by cultists who made demands. Similarly. Margaret Hill, a toddler of both British and Nigerian parents, was kidnapped and later released.
Three months later, her father, a diabetic, died - perhaps of a broken heart having been forced to live through the trauma of having his only child forcibly taken. In Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, the governor, was abducted by men allegedly acting on the instructions of his political godfather, Chris Uba, and held for hours all in a bid to force his resignation.
And in Edo State, my colleague's daughter, a part two medical undergraduate, was also kidnapped recently and her dad was forced to cough out N100, 000.00 as ransom. Indeed, no strata of the Nigerian social class has been spared the incidence of kidnapping for ransom.
Other climes: In an article titled, 'Kidnap and ransom', Richard Clutterbuck reports that on September 16, 1974, two Born brothers, sons of the chairman and founder of Bunge Born of Argentina, were kidnapped from their car by the Monteneros.
Though guarded and escorted, they left home at the same time every day to drop their children at school on the way. After being held hostage for nine months, they were released for a ransom of $60 million. On February 27, 1976, William Niehous, vice-president of Owens-Illinois in Venezuela, was kidnapped in Caracas by the Commando Afmigiro Gabaldon, believed to be a splinter group of the Bandero Roja.
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