The picture of Abubakar Abdulaziz, a 30-year-old kidnapper arrested last week by men of the Katsina State Police Command, apparently taken at the command’s headquarters, tells a tragic tale. Abdulaziz, paraded by the police for kidnapping and burying alive a three-year-old child in the Musawa Local Government Area of the state, beamed with smiles as if he expected to be celebrated for his crime. According to the Katsina command’s spokesperson, CSP Isah Gambo, the suspect had sneaked into the residence of one Adamu Alhassan of Bacirawa village while he was asleep, abducted his three three-year-old son, and thereafter took the child to an unknown destination. He then wrote a letter directing the victim’s parents to pay a ransom of N800,000, leaving a phone number with which he could be reached. However, Alhassan negotiated with the suspect and eventually paid the sum of N150,000 to secure the release of his son. Abdulaziz collected the ransom and thereafter proceeded to bury the boy alive. He has since owned up to the crime

Apparently, these are perilous times with merchants of death literally prowling neighbourhoods, looking for whom to devour. It is distressing that a child resting in the comfort of his parents’ home was abducted, brutalised and then killed in the most gruesome circumstances by a depraved, bloodthirsty criminal emboldened by the lax security situation in Katsina State to cause everlasting misery in the home of his victim(s). Alhassan, apparently a man of lean means, desperately raised all he could get in the hope of being reunited with his son but the kidnapper had other ideas. The Nigerian State has to make it impossible for killers to escape justice, or worse stories will surface.

Actually, it is not just that the crime of kidnapping has become commonplace in the country in the absence of countervailing action on the part of government, which leaves perpetrators to engage in it freely; the fact is that the payment of ransom to kidnappers does not necessarily guarantee the release of the victims, as they are often still killed after the collection of ransom. This is a double tragedy for the families of the victims who are often forced to raise ransoms in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Sadly, with the government being unable to act decisively against kidnappers, they now operate with so much confidence and impunity. They whimsically determine when to abduct people and what to do with their victims irrespective of the payment of ransom. The fact that a kidnapper could abduct a three-year old from his home, collect ransom and still proceed to bury the hapless kid alive underlines the growing rapacity of the kidnapping venture.

It is such a terrible ordeal to be kidnapped, leaving the family in distress as they scamper to raise the ransom demanded. The case is even worse when the victim is a child who naturally cannot make any sense of the dastardly proceedings. Besides, the mental torture suffered by the families paying the ransom demanded by kidnappers and still losing their loved ones cannot be imagined. It is a harrowing experience that leaves permanent, inerasable scars. This is why the government has to up its game and stop this terrible situation by making kidnapping unprofitable. It must devise strategies that would make it impossible for kidnappers to succeed in the crime. If there is certainty of apprehension, many would think twice before venturing into kidnapping. The ball is therefore in the court of the government to do everything to stop the kidnapping trend while ensuring severe punishment in the current case in accordance with the laws of the land.

We sympathise with the family of the deceased child and wish them the fortitude to survive this terrible ordeal. We hope that justice will not be unduly delayed in this case. We urge the Katsina State government to use this case to send a signal to criminals that kidnapping and killing will not be tolerated in the state.

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