Kidnapping, bombing, incest, electrocutions reign in 2010

Jonathan Eze.

The year 2010 was notorious for different crime cases that called into question the security of the nation.

On a daily basis, the media was awash with one story or the other, creating a morbid fear in the hearts of the citizenry. Even the security agencies could not curtail their excesses. From kidnapping to bomb explosions and communal crisis all claiming lives in an unprecedented scale.

There were also handful cases of electrocutions which were a product of carelessness on the parts of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

Innocent lives were lost. What about incest? Fathers displayed their inordinate immorality by pouncing on their daughters to satisfy their canal desires.

Kidnapping: The list was endless. Criminals embraced the act, capturing unsuspecting citizens in exchange for ransom which were negotiable. The case that shook the entire country was the kidnap of some journalists in Abia State.

A gang of gunmen in Aba, Abia State, kidnapped five journalists who were returning from Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, after a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

The journalists, from Lagos, Ogun, Delta and Kwara State Councils of the NUJ, were moving in a convoy of vehicles to their various destinations when, on arrival in Aba town, they met a five-man gang operating in an ash-coloured old model Volvo struck.

The gunmen, according to the report, overtook and double-crossed the Toyota Sienna vehicle carrying the Lagos State contingent, a development which forced other vehicles behind it to stop. The gang immediately shot at the vehicle’s tyres.

Sensing danger, occupants of the other vehicles, which included the Ogun, Delta and Kwara States contingents hurriedly abandoned their vehicles and managed to escape. But the Lagos contingent was not lucky, as they were overpowered and abducted.

Those abducted include Wahab Oba (Chairman); Adolpshos Okwonko (Zonal Secretary, Zone G); Sola Oyedipo (acting Secretary of the council); Silver Okereke, as well as the driver of the vehicle, Yekini Azeez.

The kidnappers contacted the National Secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja, demanding the ransom of N250 million, before the victims could regain their freedom.

It took the deployment of the Inspector General of Police then, IGP Onovo to rescue them from the jaws of death.

Another case of kidnap recorded was that of Miss. Nchedo and Chidinma, 20 and 21 years old respectively. They spent 25 harrowing days under harsh conditions at Iyano Iba where they were held.

The suspects; Patrick Igwe, Sunday Ekwunife and Chimezie Akana confessed to the crime after the two sisters were rescued. On their experience, Chidinma said “My sister and I came out in the evening to buy a few things and also collect our clothes from the laundry. But a vehicle suddenly blocked our path in Festac and one of the three men pointed a gun at us and ordered us to enter the car. They covered our eyes with clothes and drove us to the place they kept us for 25 days before we were rescued. They beat us, and fed us poorly. We were just praying not to be killed”

There were also cases where kids were abducted from their schools in order to get a ransom from their parents. A case in mind was that of Rita and Ruth who barely three were. Their abductors lured them with biscuits beating the porous security network of the school until members of the Odua People's Congress suspected and apprehended them.

The nation will also not forget in a hurry, the kidnap of 15 nursery school pupils in Abia State. It was a dastardly act that shook Abia government to its very foundation, forcing the government to invite the military joint task force, to assist police in curtailing activities of kidnappers and the rescue of the pupils.

2010 also witnessed the death of the kingpin of kidnappers in Abia State, Osisikankwu in a gun fight with military men.

The year was ended on the note of a young girl who was kidnapped with the aid of the family's house help called Akanmu.

BOMBING: Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) Mr. Henry Okah was fingered as being responsible for a bomb blast that marred the 50 years independent anniversary in Abuja. The terrorist act claimed lives of innocent citizens and it also attracted international comments which condemned the act.

Okah, who denied any wrongdoing, was detained in South Africa after the explosions which left scary memories of Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary celebration.

But the incident in which no fewer than 10 persons died became the subject of a row between President Goodluck Jonathan’s camp and former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s.

Gen. Babangida said it was wrong of Jonathan to have absolved MEND of complicity in the explosions. Besides, he demanded an inquiry into the explosions, “instead of a passing glance.”

Babangida’s Campaign Organisation, in a statement by the Director, Media and Communications, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said: "The position of the Federal Government on the very painful and morally reprehensible act of car bombing on Golden Jubilee celebration did not only expose a breakdown in the security of the nation, but also exposes the lack of co-ordination of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government.

"On an issue as serious as bombing, the government must not jump into conclusion by exonerating the group that has claimed responsibility, but must take a decisive step to arrest this ugly trend in our society by commencing full investigation into the incident.

"At different times, Nigerians have read different versions of the heinous crime coming from government officials. While the President hastily exonerated the MEND, saying he knew those behind the act, another government official and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Timi Alaibe, blamed the incident on one Mr. Henry Okah.

"Yet, the State Security Service reportedly told Nigerians that they received intelligence alert which prompted them to swing into action to avert the danger.

“Babangida rationalised that Mr. President would have immediately ordered a high powered investigation into the matter rather than alluding the incident to terrorists attack to give the country a bad image in the international community. The discordant tunes coming from government circles, each saying a different thing without linkages and synergies did not augur well for the country’s security system. If you cannot protect your people, then you have no reason being in government.

“My belief is that those who have reasons to protest must understand that innocent people are out there that do not deserve this injustice. It’s not fair. By that act, people have been maimed; some have been made widows, orphans and some have lost their children.

"We have to get talking; it is the ability to sit down and dialogue that can get us results. The time has come for us to understand that this act of violence and injustice being visited on people that have nothing to do with their grievances is uncalled for and unfair."

In Jos, during Christmas, it was reported that four bombs went off in Kabong area of Gada Biyu, Jos, the Plateau State capital, killing 20 people and leaving seven injured.

Confirming the Christmas Eve incident, the Plateau State commissioner of Police, Abdurrahman Akano, said that only seven people were injured.

But the commissioner of Information of the state, Gregory Nyelong, contrary to what the Police Chief said, insisted that 20 people lost their lives in the blast.

The explosion took place on the flyover and around the satellite market commissioned recently by the President. Residents of the city became very apprehensive regarding the safety of their lives and property, especially because it was the first time such serial bomb blasts will take place in Jos and northern Nigeria after the blast that took place on April 13 earlier in the year, killing three people in the ancient city

ELECTROCUTION

The last Easter Sunday will still remain indelible in the minds of residents of Andrew Wilson Estate, otherwise known as Evboriaria Layout, off Sapele Road, Benin City.
The estate, comprising about 30 buildings of 60 flats, is inhabited by civil servants, and has about 300 residents.
On the day in question, the residents were thrown into panic.

Electrical appliances such as television, refrigerator, fan and toaster that were switched off suddenly began to emit fume just as some of them went up in flames. Walls of buildings, roofing sheets, iron protectors for doors and windows were not left out.
Even earth surfaces, within the estate and beyond, emitted fume. Almost everybody talked of the same experience, but nobody knew exactly what the problem was.
By the time the residents could understand what was going on; about two people had been electrocuted.

The electrocution followed the explosion of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) transformer serving the estate and its environs.
Those electrocuted were a pensioner, Mr. Isaac Legogie, a relation of former deputy Senate President, Albert Legogie; an 18-year-old girl simply identified as Lizzy Adogamhe and a yet to be identified middle-aged man.

In Dopemu area of Lagos, Miss. Toyin Ikolo, a final year student of Agriculture and Economics Extension, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, was electrocuted.

She was until her death at home in Lagos, due to the industrial action embarked upon by the institution. She was at Dopemu market selling frozen foods for her mother who traveled to Cross River for a wedding ceremony.

Her death was a product of negligence on the part of PHCN officials who erected a pole, activated it after two days without concrete cement flooring which could have held the pole firmly to the ground.

The weather became cloudy and there was a whirlwind which tilted the pole down where she was sitting under an umbrella, which she held to shield herself of the rainfall. One of the cables dropped on the Umbrella, and the only female girl in the family became lifeless.

The case of Mr. Favour Amechi was even more pathetic. The Pastor was walking down the street when a pole fell on him and instantly electrocuted him in Lagos. He could not survive it and the families which included his new wife and a two months old baby were denied of their loved one. The list is endless.

INCEST: It is bizarre but true. In 2010, there were ignominious cases of incest.

A 40-year-old man was sexually involved with his daughter, aged 16 and got her pregnant. He however ascribed it to the devil. The suspect, Sunday Olanrele, said he was usually seized by a strange spirit that arouses an irresistible sexual urge in him whenever he sighted the daughter. His words “Each time I see her, I feel a serious urge to have sex with her. I am a mechanic and she is my daughter. She does not live with me because I and the mother were divorced. I usually regain my senses after having sex with her.”
 Ben Philip, 40, also got his 12-year-old daughter pregnant last year.

 Philip claimed his daughter initiated the amorous affairs, but the young girl insisted her father started it.

The suspect shocked detectives quizzing him when he promised to father the child from his daughter because his Christian faith forbids abortion. The girl revealed that her father did not only deflowered her, but would starve her of food and mete out other punishments on her wherever she refused to have sex with him.

A 53-year-old man, John Awah, was held by the police for allegedly having carnal knowledge of his 18-year-old daughter, Chinyere.

Awah was said to have defiled his daughter eight times, during which period she got impregnated. Chinyere, however, denied that her father was responsible for her pregnancy. The Nigerian Compass gathered that trouble started when Chinyere decided to come to Lagos and live with Awah, whom she had not seen for 17 years, after her parents had parted ways, at the time she was still a year old.

According to the police, when Awah saw that the daughter had matured into a woman, he was attracted to her and started making advances by buying her gifts.