TEENAGE
schoolgirls seem not to be safe in Nigeria anymore. In a seriously disturbing
incident, three Senior Secondary School girls were kidnapped on the premises of
the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, Ikorodu, Lagos State, last Monday. It
was an escapade that involved about 12 gunmen. Abducted were Timilehin Olosa,
Tofunmi Popoolaniyan and Deborah Akinayo. The police moved into action
straightaway and were able to rescue the girls in one week.
The rescue is a departure from events in the past, in which
criminals were able to evade the security agents after committing a crime. This
time, by mobilising about 500 security agents, the tables were turned against
the kidnappers. Kidnapping is a grave offence, which the suspects in the
Ikorodu school case must not be allowed to get away with. The state needs to
get to the root of the matter and bring the perpetrators to swift justice.
Media reports stated that the kidnappers had attempted previously to abduct
some pupils from the BMJS, but failed. Porous pathways behind the school aided
the abductors to succeed at a second attempt.
Teenagers are vulnerable, and this ordeal can endanger the
future of the girls forever. Their parents must have been reduced to nervous
wrecks as they awaited the release of their children. Yet, there are many
schoolgirls and families undergoing similar torture because of kidnapping. It
is an indication of the weak state of security in the country.
According to Control Risk, a United Kingdom-based consultancy that tracks
kidnapping cases globally, Nigeria has risen to the fifth position in the world
of kidnapping, just behind Mexico, India, Pakistan and Iraq. The deadly Islamic
insurgency in the North and militancy in the Niger Delta seem to fuel this
degeneracy. In April 2014, Boko Haram jihadists captured 276 schoolgirls from
Chibok, Borno State. Almost two years after, 219 of the girls are still
missing.
Last year, three infants were abducted by their nanny in Lagos,
two days after she resumed work. Not many, including the Chibok girls, were as
lucky as the Lagos Three who later regained their freedom. A Reuters report in April 2015 stated
that “at least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the
start of 2014 and many have been forced into sexual slavery and trained to
fight.” We need to put in more effort to end the dehumanisation of our girls.
Kidnapping should attract a harsher punishment. As kidnapping
became a monster, some state governments enacted laws that prescribed the death
penalty for convicted offenders. Through such laws, personal buildings of
kidnappers were also pulled down. But the BMJS kidnapping has raised the
stakes, as it concerns minors. The government has to treat security with more
seriousness.
Lagos State should improve on the process of reporting crime to
the security agencies through the toll free 767 and 112 numbers, and the social
media. However, this is a wake-up call to other state governments to draw up
fresh plans to secure the schools in their domains. The increasing
diversification of criminal activities in the country demands dramatic
institutional changes, including creation of more police forces. To see the
Nigerian process through, it is time the Federal Government heeded the
persistent call for the creation of state police.
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