Don Tasks Judges On Anti-Kidnapping Loans

Former Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt, Prof. Adolphus Joseph Toby, has called on Nigerian judges to always abide by the state’s subsisting laws against kidnapping and to avoid granting bail unduly to suspected kidnappers.
Speaking with The Tide yesterday in Port Harcourt on the rate of kidnapping in Nigeria and other national issues, Toby decried the haste at which suspected kidnappers were set free, admonished judges to critically examine the relevant laws and do the right thing when kidnap cases brought before them.
He reminded them that the society was looking up to them to continue the fight against kidnapping at their various law courts.
The former dean maintained that the current dispensation in Nigeria is determined to fight against this vice and other crimes to a standstill, pointing out that it needs constant backing of the judiciary to win the war against crime.
He noted, “Before the task force was drafted in the country, residents were on the verge of abandoning their places of abode due to high level of kidnapping, rape and armed robbery”.
Toby further stressed that everybody, including the judges should help government and the military in their quest to rid society of heinous crimes and urged the various state government to ensure that the scourge was eradicated from their areas of jurisdiction.
On crimes fighting in Rivers State, Prof. Toby commended Governor Nyesom Wike, the police and other government machineries for fighting crimes in the state as well, beefing up security in the nooks and crannies of the oil rich state, describing such efforts as, “remarkable”.
He, however, appealed to the National and State Assembly to come up with severe penalty for those fanning the embers of war and insecurity in the state no matter whose ox is gored.
Toby also used the opportunity to laud the media for its expository support for crime fighting in the country, and added “as the fourth estate of leadership realm of any nation, they should not rest on their oars in exposing criminals among the people for posterity”.

Bethel Toby