Abduction epidemic: Anti-kidnapping protest holds in Abuja today as 10 suspects

Members of the Middle-Belt Youth Forum will on Wednesday (today) in Abuja protest the rising cases of kidnapping in the region and the insecurity that has ravaged parts of the country.

This is coming against the backdrop of the arrest of 10 suspected bandits by the military.

The President of the forum, Brent Kane, disclosed that the protesters would march peacefully to the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office to demand the declaration of the kidnappers and bandits as terrorists, and an end to the killings and abductions across the country.

The planned demonstration would take place as about 19 abductees taken away by bandits from the Sagwari Estate Layout in Dutsen-Alhaji area in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory last Thursday spent the seventh day in custody of their captors.

The kidnappers are demanding N700m ransom for nine of their victims.

The kidnappers had killed four of the hostages, including Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, a 400-level student of Biological Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and 13-year-old Folashade Ariyo.

Nabeeha was abducted alongside six other siblings and as of Tuesday night, the remaining five sisters, including Najeebah, a 500-level Quantity Surveying student and Nadherah, a 300-level Zoology student, are still in captivity.

The siblings were kidnapped with their father, Alhaji Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, from their home at Zuma 1, on the outskirts of Bwari town in Abuja on January 11.

The captors had released Al-Kadriyar, asking him to pay N60m ransom for the release of his daughters.

They later raised the ransom to N100m which they insisted must be paid by Wednesday (today).

Also, Folashade Ariyo’s mother and three siblings are still in captivity.

The bandits reportedly killed their victims over an alleged delay in providing the ransom.

The incident provoked nationwide anger on Monday and foreboding over the fate of the remaining captives.

However, in a memo shared with PUNCH Metro on Tuesday, Kane said the spate of killings and kidnappings in the North-Central region had left families and individuals in despair.

According to him, the kidnappers and bandits operated like terrorists and should therefore be treated as such.

He said, “The primary objective of this peace walk, organised by Africa’s Morning Centre for Public Policy and Good Governance and the Middle Belt Youth Forum, is to compel the Federal Government through the Attorney-General of the Federation to invoke sections 3, 48, and 49 of Nigeria’s Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022, to declare these wanton killings and destruction an act of terrorism.

“The groups that are kidnapping citizens, wiping out communities, razing down homesteads, farmlands and taking over communities, while indigenous landowners languish in IDPs camps have profited immensely from the subterfuge and presenting themselves as amorphous.

‘’But a careful study of the manner of their attacks will leave no one in doubt that they operate an effective command and control structure and that their activities are in clear breach of Nigeria’s anti-terrorism laws.”

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Africa’s Morning Centre, Chima Christian, noted that the group would partner with the youth forum to demand an end to the killings and kidnapping in the middle belt region, stressing that the Federal Government had remained unconcerned about the plight of the masses.

“The killings are unnecessary and they show that the government has been recalcitrant to the plight of the people. It is high time these kidnappers were addressed by their name which is terrorists. The constitution is clear about it that anybody involved in the act of kidnapping is a terrorist.

“We will be taking the protest to the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office to make our position known and we will not relent in demanding an end to this menace,” Christian said.