Deficits in Police units and the rampages of kidnap-for-ransom
Last Week, a request of N50 million was the ransom demanded by kidnap-for-ransom gunmen who abducted eight people on Tuesday at Itapaji Ekiti, in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State. The kidnappers reportedly demanded the N50 million sum from the family of the victims on Wednesday, 27th of October. Report of the abduction revealed the gunmen numbering about seven had stormed a house located in the town around 9:30p.m., shot intermittently into the air, whisked away eight occupants of the residence while six others escaped at an unsavoury time when the owner of the building was reportedly preparing for his mother’s burial.
The ugly development came barely a week after four persons were kidnapped in Ayebode-Ekiti, in the same local government. Residents of the area have linked the lack of police stations in Itapaji-Ayebode and Irele-Oke Ako axes as a keen factor responsible for increasing rates of kidnapping within the zone. Residents of the area had noted that the fact the nearest police station is in Ikole Ekiti, which is over 40 minutes drive to the troubled spots, have left the ground open for mischievous elements to perpetrate such dastardly acts intermittently without check. Ekiti State recently has been recording tolls of kidnap-for-ransom cases. It would be recalled that recently a traditional ruler, Oba Benjamin Osho, the Eleda of Eda Ile, in Ekiti East Local Government Area, was kidnapped, with his captors demanding N20 million ransom. In July, gunmen had kidnapped four farmers in a farm located in Ikosu Farm Settlement in Ikosu-Ekiti, Moba Local Government area, demanding N50 million ransom to secure their release. In August, a kidnap-for-ransom case had seen gunmen abducting a farmer in his farm located at Okejebu, Ikole Ekiti, Ikole Local Government area, with a demand of a N5 million for ransom.
The sprawling incidence of the kidnap-for-ransom menace has become troubling. The menace is growing to assume entanglements posing fear and panic against the profile of safety cohabitation essential for socio-economic activities for growth and development to take course. It is glaring that the socio-economic strains working within the fabrics of societal compositions are too deep seated than to accommodate the sprawling of the kidnap-for-ransom menace. While the menace used to have its roots in the Niger-Delta region at the wake of the Amnesty struggle which saw militants whisking expatriates and oil merchants with demands of ransom in exchange for their release, the menace has grown recently to have its strings extending to other parts of the country. The North West recently has been engrossed with the menace which has seen even school children been targeted as prey.
Analytical perusal of the spurring factors of the sprawling of the menace remain deep seated. This notwithstanding, the emphasis on the deficits in policing remains justifiable and resounding. The paucity of police architecture as stations and check points in localities across the Country has remained a subject of concern. Such deficits are such that leave several communities at the mercy of mischievous criminals who are closely open to unleash attacks without repellants from the police. The distance between several local communities and the nearest police stations spanning into several kilometers, have left them as easy spots for kidnap-for-ransom criminals, among other mischievous elements, to perpetrate their dastardly act. Hence, the lack of policing proximity has made the profile of insecurity threats in localities deep seated.
Recently in the South-West, the blow on the Police and the architectures of the Force since the #ENDSARS protests has seen the spate of kidnap-for-ransom, among other criminalities, sprawling amidst displacement of security units and stations. It is pertinent for the Government to rise to task to see to bridging the huge deficits of policing architectures which have been a gap mischievous elements have continued to exploit for their mischievous escapades against humanity. It is essential that more attention be paid to increase police units and stations strategically across localities in the Country. This is significant if a change in narrative would be recorded against the heightening records of insecurity menaces which have continued to ravaged the fabrics of the society with unsavoury strains against socio-economic activities, shrinking productivity essential for growth and development in the Country.
