If truth be told certain events in our country are taking very
dangerous turns by the day to the extent that what is desired now is for
citizens to rise to the challenge by speaking up against evil that daily stares
us all in the face including the involvement of the high and mighty in
kidnapping. Increase your personal security by installing a wireless surveillance camera around your area.

Take the
new trend of kidnapping as one of the most disturbing examples. The crime of
kidnapping was introduced into Nigeria by former Niger Delta militants who used
it as a weapon to attract public and international attention and sympathy to
the plight of the Niger Delta region. It worked because, with the abduction of
oil workers and the shutting and or destruction of oil facilities, the nation’s
revenue dipped, as the exportation of crude oil, its main source of revenue,
was adversely affected.

Hence the
introduction of the amnesty programme by which the Yar’ Adua administration
reined in the militants.  Though oil
bunkering is still on-going, the incidence of kidnapping of foreign oil workers
also persists.

Interestingly,
though some hoodlums are still into commercial kidnapping, the entry of the
well-heeled in society into this despicable crime is food for thought. For
example, the alarm raised recently by a women leader in Delta State is
noteworthy. Chief Rita-Lori Ogbabor was recently reported in the Guardian and
other national newspapers of January 8, 2013 as alleging that the government of
Delta State was involved in the kidnap of a serving judge and threat of other
justices. Though the Delta State government through its Information
Commissioner, Chike C. Ogeah has denied the accusation of abduction of  judges in its employ, the mere voicing of
such  accusation from such highly placed
citizen as Rita-Lori Ogbebor is very damning. Since there is no smoke without
fire, this singular accusation has put paid to whatever is left of the
integrity, talk less of democratic inclination of the Delta State government in
view of the sheer weight of the accusation.

In other
climes such accusation that has the potential of frightening the judges to the
extent of affecting their jobs is too bad.

Moreover,
such development could destablise the judges and truncate the activities of the
last bastion of hope for the common man. This is why such allegation should be
investigated by higher authorities to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of
such weighty accusation.

Besides, events currently playing out in Bayelsa State over
the kidnap of the mother of the House Speaker there, Hon. Kombowei Benson adds
soil to the root of Rita- Lori Ogegbor’s alarm that some highly placed persons
may have commandeered this high profile                 crime
of kidnapping. At the beginning of the year, the Korokorosei community in
Southern Ijaw local government area from where Hon. Benson hails had accused
him of instigating crisis in the area by trying to interfere in the order of
affairs through plans to impose his younger brother, Iniokpoemei as the chairman
of the Community Development Committee. The community had threatened that
unless the speaker was called to order there would be a breakdown of law and
order in the area. Infact, the community accused the Speaker of directing that
his “younger brother will continue in office as CDC chairman in 2013 and beyond
as long as he remained the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly”. But
this is a democratic dispensation!

More
interesting is the community’s allegation that Benson also threatened to send
his men after anybody who tried to install another person against his will and
avered that the community at a town hall meeting took the decisions against
which they raised the petition, one then wonders who is misleading the public.

But as
this drama over control of Korokorosei was playing out-Benson’s mother, Madam
Betinah Benson was on Monday 14th January kidnapped from Korokorosei.

Naturally,
the State government has warned kidnappers and sundry criminals to steer clear
the state. To underline its seriousness in checkmating kidnapping, the
government had passed an enabling law tagged: “Bayelsa State Secret Cult,
Kidnapping and Similar Offences Prohibition law 2012”, which makes it easier
for the government to tackle criminals of that ilk. But with the foregoing
backdrop, the government need not look far to conjecture from where Madam
Benson’s travail is coming from. Nothing can secure our country and future than
good, transparent governance devoid of greed and the l first tendencies of some
politicians. On the face of it, it would seem as if the political gladiators
are always on top of the actions of their followers. If it were so, then
someone should be held vicariously liable for certain developments in his or
her area of influence. Here is a Niger Delta that yearns for development, part
of it through direct foreign investment that is hinged on the return of peace
and the containment of militancy. But the strides so far achieved by both the
Federal and State governments in the region in that direction could be
rubbished by some unscrupulous elements who are cashing in on the many
loopholes in our legal system to unleash terror on the citizenry. The time to
rise against elements of darkness is now, as tomorrow may be too late to cure
the existing diseases including kidnapping, corruption, cheating, acts of
terrorism and child trafficking all of which tend to toll the impending Knell
of the giant of Africa.