There are two issues on my mind today. The first has to do with the spate of kidnapping and kidnappers, that strangely, are now targeting schools, students and their teachers, and who  in security term could be described as soft targets. The other is on the arrest of seven judges by the Department of State Services (DSS) and whether the manner in which the arrest was conducted was proper or not.
In today’s Nigeria, a worrisome issue, apart from corruption, has to do with  kidnapping that does not seem to have any pattern to it. It has become a thriving business that has firmly taken root in the society, like armed robbery, murder and the likes, and we are all victims or potential victims.
In spite of efforts by security agents, the kidnappers are undeterred. They have become more daring. They have seemingly scaled up their operations and have extended it to schools. They now storm schools to kidnap hapless students and their teachers. It is a known fact that criminals have no honour and it would be a pipe dream to judge them by the standard of the average person. Indeed, doing that is at one’s peril. But going to schools to pick victims is the height of inhumanity considering the implications for the victims and even their parents. It is an indelible stain that would take time and a lot of counseling to heal.
Around March this year, the kidnappers first struck at Babington Macaulay Junior Secondary school in Ikorodu, Lagos where they picked up three girls. It was like a joke. We all wondered what they hoped to achieve with that. It soon became clear that they had their agenda. At the end of the day, when the girls were eventually released,  nobody would tell us how much was paid before they (victims) regained their freedom.
Last week, it was the turn of another Lagos school, the Lagos State Model college located in Igbonla. Two students, a vice principal and another teacher were kidnapped. Although the victims have since regained their freedom. One is worried about this growing trend, the trauma on the students, including their teachers. For most parents, it is also a worrisome issue and one should not blame some of the parents who have gone ahead to withdraw their wards from such far flung schools. How would you as a parent cope when someone calls to inform you that your son or daughter that you had assumed was in the hostel had been kidnapped and ransom had to be paid? It is only best imagined than experienced.
Though the law enforcement agents are doing the best they can under the circumstance, their best does not seems to be a deterrent. The trend is growing. It is thus important that security agencies make more efforts to ensure the “trade” becomes unattractive. But this could only be achieved with government’s special intervention which should come in making the needed technology available. This is where a strong argument need be made for surveillance cameras especially in areas most vulnerable to attacks.
The argument for surveillance camera in strategic locations in the society is as old as time and we should not get tired of discussing it until the expected results are achieved. Though efforts were made in the past to instal the cameras, some of such cameras located in strategic areas are largely decorations as most are  not  connected to any power source. It is thus important to revisit the issue especially with the new  focus of the criminals. This is also the time for our schools to be communication connected to a police station that is closest to them. There is nothing wrong in having a panic button that could be depressed when there is danger. This would then alert or get a response from the nearest law enforcement agency or police station. With such installation, the jobs of policing such vulnerable targets would be a lot easier. The police would thus have a head start in their effort at combating crimes.
Criminals or more precisely, kidnappers could even be caught before disappearing or moving too far away from the scene of their crime. It is only when criminals are caught either in the act of committing crime or shortly after that kidnapping would then become unattractive. The earlier such offensives positions are taken, the better for Nigeria and Nigerians, else, it would get to a stage when driving on major roads in an attractive vehicle, irrespective of whether you have the means of fueling the vehicle or not, would make all of us victims. Like the kidnappers of the wife of the governor of the central Bank of Nigeria said, they were attracted to their victim because of the vehicles they rode. Enough on that for now.
As stated earlier, my next concern has to do with the arrest of the judges alleged to have corruptly enriched themselves while sitting on the bench. Opinions have been sharply divided over the arrest, while the DSS has been blamed for its approach to the operation, many other feels the operation was successful because it was a sting operation which enabled the law enforcers to nab the judges with the evidence.
Indeed, the entire operation makes it difficult to understand what Nigerians really want. Yes, Nigerians are in agreement that large scale corruption exists in the judiciary and it should be sanitized. Surprisingly, when action was taken, the same people complaining of corruption in the judiciary that have now come out to condemn the DSS’ action. They condemned what they are now describing as the gestapo-like operation.They said it was wrong to have invaded the premises of the lordship at that ungodly hour.  Pray, what niceties or permission do you need when you have to go after someone alleged to have committed a crime against the society? It is clear that if the tactics was not adopted, it would have been difficult to establish a case against their lordship, if there was going to be any case at all. The concerns of those opposed to the tactics are understandable, but when has it been easy to do anything or establish any case against any ‘big man’ in the country? All it takes is just a phone call to another big man and the case disappears like a morning mist caught in the ray of an early morning sunshine.
In the past, accusations against government had always been that the fight against corruption was one-sided and targeted at the less influential in the society while the big ones were allowed to escape.
This is what the DSS’ approach seemingly wants  to correct- Catch the big fish with enough evidence to convict. The onus now is on the judges to prove how they got the humongous amount found in their possession. But while at this, the government should also widen its net, arresting ‘corrupt judges’ should be all encompassing. Though the majority of those condemning the action are from the opposition, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), I am not saying the judges arrested are ‘their judges’, or have sympathy for ‘them’, but judges are human and they live in the same society like all of us, they have their sympathies too, the dragnets of the anti corruption fight should therefore extend to all those with marks on their integrity and not to those believed to be sympathetic to any cause.

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