Date Published: 05/13/09

Sir,

Killing after ransom payment not acceptable

It was disheartening that after receiving ransom of Ten million from the Abak Local Government Council Chairman, the abductors of his 23-year old daughter still snuffed life out of her. This should be condemned in every sense of it.

Nevertheless, it is important commenting that payment of ransom to kidnappers is sort of encouraging them to go on with their acts. Recently the Governor of Akwa Ibom paid an undisclosed sum to the kidnappers of Essien Udim Local Government before his release few weeks back. You cannot be talking of tougher stance and utterances like “I will kill them”, and at the same time encouraging the kidnappers.

The new Police Commissioner in Akwa State, CP Walter Rugbere has also condemned the idea of paying ransom and urged all and sundry to desist from doing so. It is hoped that both the government and citizens would listen to his wise counsel.

This brings to fore the fact that instead of digging into the root causes of this growing melee, it is being treated at the surface. It is a common knowledge that extravagant life-style and looting of the State treasuries by some of our leaders. Some State governments rushed into enacting capital punishment laws on kidnappers.

It should be understood that it will be difficult convicting any person for kidnapping as concrete evidence must be gotten first. In most cases we hear of those released captives talking glowingly of their captors. It is only when a kidnapper confesses to the crime or was caught in the act that he becomes convicted. The capital punishment would rather make the kidnappers to resort to killing their victims for fear of being identified. These go to show that deciding on capital punishment could be a misplaced decision.

Engineer Barnabas Osuanlele, 198 Ikpoba Road, Benin City, Edo State.

barnabasosuanlele@yahoo.com