Lagos — Perhaps a positive outcome that may be perceived in the one-week national trauma that accompanied the abduction of four journalists and their driver a fortnight ago by criminals in Abia State is that it provoked intense soul-searching among the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, and Nigeria's political elite.

Suddenly, the kidnapping menace that had been terrorizing many parts of the country unchecked for a few years received the proper attention of the Nigerian authorities. Such was the fury with which the rescue of the abducted journalists was taken up by the government that even the kidnappers and their secret backers must have privately regretted catching newsmen in their despicable trap.

Inspector-General of Police Ogbonna Onovo temporarily moved Police Headquarters from Abuja to the South-

East states, on the orders of the President, to ensure that the journalists were rescued from the criminals. It was, nevertheless, a trying experience for the police chief. His personal reputation and career were on the line, and for a few days the robbers - for that's what they are - seemed to have worsted Onovo. As is their practice, they bargained unashamedly for the lives of their victims: first, they demanded N250 million as the ransom price. After several days of harrowing negotiations, the Nigeria Union of Journalists announced that the kidnappers had finally been persuaded to accept N30 million as ransom for the captured men. The NUJ's national president, Mohammed Garba, was blunt: his union was ready to pay the price to secure the men's release. It was a desperate time! Fortunately, IG Onovo and his men saved the day when they set the five men free a few days after Garba's statement. No ransom was paid, according to the NUJ. Rather, the intense security pressure on the kidnappers forced them to release their victims unharmed.

But that was only after the IG had thrashed about in visible anguish for one week. At the peak of his frustration (on Thursday, July 15), he had summoned his ethnic kin to a town hall meeting in Awka, the Anambra State capital, and told them the home truth: that their criminal conduct was going to cost him his job, which the entire South-East had strongly lobbied for.

Onovo held nothing back from his kinsmen, whom he addressed in Igbo. "There was a time," he told them, "(when) we had the problem of armed robbery, car snatching, burglary and stealing; but today what is happening in the South-East is kidnapping. The South-East is the only place where I have this problem; in all other parts of the country, we have taken control and policemen are doing well. The question we must ask ourselves is why the menace has become permanent in the zone, and why we are unable to control it. All the kidnappers arrested so far in the South East are Igbos - Igbos killing themselves in Igboland."

The broken-hearted IG did not stop there. "Even kidnapping in other places has been traced to Igbo boys," he told his distinguished audience. "In far away Malaysia, a Nigerian student was kidnapped and they made calls back to Nigeria, demanding money. When the Malaysians arrested the kidnappers, they were Igbo boys from Nigeria here. In South Africa, it is the same. So, is it in our blood?"

The abduction of the journalists has, thus, had the effect of unearthing this revelation: that the South-East zone of the country is today the bedrock of the kidnapping crime. Three local government areas - Ikwuano, Obi Ngwa and Osisioma Ngwa - have especially been fingered as the haven of the criminals. Therefore the extermination of the crime should be much easier. The IG must move quickly to complete the routing of the criminals.

The process appears to have begun already. On the day the abducted journalists and their driver were finally released, the Abia State Government announced the arrest and dethronement of a royal father, Eze Vincent O. Uche, the traditional ruler of Amauba-Ime Oboro Autonomous Community in Ikwuano LGA. The state government said he had already been charged with "sponsoring kidnapping and armed robbery". Three other traditional rulers in Abia State were suspended: Eze Okechukwu Atulobi of Osusu, Eze Nwabiarije Eneogwe and Eze S. Onwukwe, all from Obi Ngwa LGA. Latest reports indicate that up to 15 traditional rulers may eventually be suspended after ongoing investigations are concluded. In addition, over 500 other suspects have been arrested for interrogation.

Uprooting the crime will require much more work, however, for it has spread all over the country. The same week that the journalists were kidnapped in Abia State, for example, the 82-year-old mother of Alhaji Sani Lulu, ex-President of the Nigeria Football Federation, was kidnapped in Idah, Kogi State. The criminals held on to the aged lady for over one week, while they demanded a N200 million ransom. A truly disturbing dimension of the crime is the export of kidnapping abroad by Nigerians. Nigeria's High Commissioner to Malaysia announced this week that four Nigerian students had been arrested in that country for involvement in kidnapping. Must our image be soiled in this way?

Apart from addressing the remote causes like economic hardship, acute unemployment among the youth, crass materialism, and loss of faith in the present corrupt Nigerian system, tackling the crime requires tooling the police with modern gadgets and more sophisticated arms. For instance, the journalists' abductors came under intense security pressure because of technical assistance from Interpol, whose personnel had the equipment to track the approximate locations of mobile phone calls from the kidnappers. Without such basic equipment, the criminals will continue to have a field day by feasting on the misery of their victims and their families. Unfortunately, the basic step of registering mobile phone SIM cards - which the National Communications Commission, NCC, had unpardonably neglected to insist on from the start - is already enmeshed in the preliminary controversy of who will bear the cost: the NCC or the licensed telecoms firms. Complicating the problem is the fact that kidnapping has become big business, as evident in the size of cash ransoms the criminals now feel emboldened to demand. The government should urgently confront this monster As former military president Ibrahim Babangida rightly put it: "It is shocking to hear kidnappers placing a price on their victims, as if they were commodities."