DEFINITELY, this is not the best of times for the people of Delta State . From Delta North to Central and Southern Senatorial constituencies, criminals, specifically kidnappers, have taken total control of the oil-rich state.Hardly would a day pass without people, including children, being abducted by kidnappers, who would demand ransoms, thus making a nuisance of the security apparatus in the state.The suspected kidnappers continued to carry on their businesses with impunity, giving the impression that they are the defacto government. The fact that they seem to determine when the state, particularly Warri metropolis, enjoys peace is beginning to gain firm roots.On a Sunday afternoon, precisely February 20, 2010, Madam Julie Tonwe, a branch manager in one of the new generation banks with office in Warri, was driving out of her house located in Edjebha area, when she was waylaid by two gun-totting youths, armed with AK 47 assault rifles.Before the situation dawned on her, she was already a guest of the kidnappers, who, after taking her to their hideout, established contact with her husband and demanded for N60 million.Her case was even milder, considering the pathetic plight of Madam Lucy (other names withheld) who was on her way to the church for the Sunday service with her children in her Prado Jeep, when a Toyota Camry overtook her vehicle, halting her movement. The kidnappers dragged her and two of her children into the car and raced off.It took some days for her relations to secure her release after an undisclosed amount of money exchanged hands. This, in most cases, run into millions of naira as the kidnappers always mount surveillance on thier targets before they strike. This, according to sources, was to ensure that paupers were not kidnapped in error.To prove this point, penultimate Friday, four children of the Chairman of Warri Branch of the Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD) Mr. Godspower Mashemigha, were unlucky on their way to school in a Hilux Jeep.And just as they were approaching the gate of the school, at about 7.30 a.m. a car branded in the campaign colour of a governorship candidate in Delta state blocked the vehicle and four heavily armed men emerged and asked the children to move into their get away car.Two of the children exhibited courage and bolted into the school compound while the remaining two, Mine aged 12 years and Yenroun aged nine years, apparently younger and oblivious of the implication of the scene were whisked away. Barely five hours after the incident the kidnappers contacted their father and demanded for N80 million ransom.The four children were in a Hilux jeep conveying them to school when the branded car suddenly blocked their vehicle. Two of the children ran away on sighting the gun wielding men while the remaining two were kidnapped, a security source disclosed.This development threw the tanker drivers into confusion and resolved to immediately stop loading fuel from WRPC in protest against the rising state of insecurity in Delta State .That same day, an unidentified staff of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) was also kidnapped in Effurun near Warri just as on March 14, gunmen kidnapped Mr. Chinedu Mekoma, vice chairman of Aniocha South Local Council in Delta State . Mekoma, a prominent petroleum marketer and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was abducted near an eatery joint on Isiekpe Street in Ogwashi-Uku at about 8:00 p.m.The kidnappers, who apparently trailed him to the area, bundled him into one of the three black cars in which they came, shooting sporadically into the air to scare people. They also shot at the tyres of several cars parked on the street, apparently to demobilise anyone from pursuing them. The gunshots caused a stampede on the street as people scampered for safety.Mekomas family sources said the kidnappers were yet to reach them several hours after the abduction, but the family had shut all his four petrol stations and other retail outlets in the town.The first case of kidnapping in the country was first recorded in Delta State in 2005. It was then an instrument used by the militants in the Niger Delta struggle to attract the attention of the Federal Government and the international community to the under-development of the region.Nigerian Tribune investigations revealed that the focus of the kidnappers then was on foreigners working in the state, nay the region. But along the line, money exchanged hands between the militants and the home countries or embassies of the kidnapped victims. However, this became a source of revenue, aside bunkering, for the militants to increase the stocking of arms and ammunitions in their armouries.But since the amnesty programme of the Federal Government, the problem of kidnapping has increased in intensity. This time it is not between the militants and the foreign workers but between brothers and brothers for the purpose of making fast money.Today, in Warri, people plan kidnap of their wealthy relations. Children plan abduction of their parents while daughters planned their own kidnap with their boyfriends to extract money from their parents. The state government seems helpless in the unfolding kidnap saga in the oil rich state. Several efforts had been made in the past to curb this social problem but it appears all efforts had failed. In fact, masses are left at the mercy of the kidnappers in the face of the helplessness of the security agencies in the state.But because of the growing discontent of the people over the rising state of insecurity, the Delta State Waterways Security Committee (DWSC) outfit, set up an Anti-Kidnapping Task Force last week to provide intelligence information to security agents on how to checkmate the activities of the kidnappers.The DWSC team, led by Chief Boro Opudu is working in conjunction with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), in Delta state, commanded by Superintendent Jonathan Acha and other security agencies to track down the kidnappers.The secretary of the DWSC anti-kidnapping team, Mr. Henry Baro, who is a Special Adviser on Security to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, gave out the following numbers MTN, Zain and Glo numbers, 08067997662, 08028221601 and 080515900682 to the public through which they can supply information on the activities of kidnappers and suspected kidnappers in their areas for appropriate action.Every act of kidnapping in the state should be reported to the anti-kidnapping team, people should come to our office at the Government House Annexe, Warri, to lodge reports. We are ready to stop kidnapping once and for all in the state, he said, asserting that the anti-kidnapping team has resolved that no member of the public should pay ransom any more to any kidnapper(s) in the state, as any person who pays ransom to them will be charged for aiding and abetting criminality.Whether this strategy will work or not has been subjected to debate as the committee members are always accused of using the outfit to settle scores with those opposed to their interests, politically and business as well as communal, at the detriment of the objectives for which it was set up.The Delta State Police Public Relations Offficer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Charles Muka ,said police was on top of the situation and doing everything possible to curtail the activities of the kidnappers in the state. Muka pleaded with the people not to be disappointed with the police over rising cases of kidnapping in the state, describing it as a social problem that requires information for them to be able to tackle.
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