By Semiu Okanlawon
Imagine yourself having two daughters traveling along a route and you suddenly receive information that the very direction they were headed, a kidnap incident had happened some eight hours before and that vehicles from where the hapless victims were snatched away were still left on the road, with no one knowing the fate of the captives.
That was my situation early morning of Saturday October 28th. To worsen the phobia, a call put through to them to confirm how far they had gone with their journey showed they were just some 5 minutes drive to the very scene of the kidnap the night before.
You could find yourself in dilemma of either calling the driver to
halt the journey, make a turn and bring your children back home. But what if
another danger was actually lurking on the way for return journey? “Okay,
please go ahead,” you instruct your driver and jumped on the prayer mat to tell
God to take control. But don’t forget the victims of the previous hours also
prayed to God too?
Two hours later, I was to learn that one of the victims of the
incident was actually a kinsman known to me. That was how I got to know that
Prof Adigun Agbaje, one of Nigeria’s most celebrated Political Scientists was
actually in the kidnappers’ den. He was not there alone. He was captured along
with some other younger persons, mostly students whom he is still sad, he could
not help while leaving the camp of the devils.
I had written elsewhere that we cannot afford to allow the
Lagos-Ibadan highway become another fearful story of the Abuja-Kaduna tragedy.
Today, that deadly route simply is a metaphor for the heightened level of
insecurity in Nigeria and the expanding killing fields, kidnappers’ den, death
traps that the roads have become.
And Nigerians can name such death traps in their respective
regions of the country. Who travels from Ilesa to Akure or to Ekiti without
trepidations these days? Ado-Ekiti to Akure, Shagamu to Ore, Shagamu to
Abeokuta, Ibadan to Ijebu Ode, Ogbomoso-Oyo-Ibadan and many others in the
South-West all have one tale of fears.
In
a post of similar narrative I made few days ago, those who saw the piece as
striking the very core of what tugs at their hearts as a people came back with
saddening tales of the state of affairs in their respective localities. Indeed,
I got more depressing evidence many Nigerians are suffering in loud silence and
have resigned to fate.
In the North, the Zaria-Katsina-Kebbi routes, Sokoto-Kebbi,
Abuja-Lokoja, Lafia-Akwanga Road, are known for crimes of all hues. Of course,
almost the entire stretch of the South-East and South-South are taken over by
kidnappers with Benin-Asaba, PortHarcourt-Owerri, Aba-Onitsha, Port
Harcourt-Yenagoa, Warri-Ughelli and others all have their contributions to the
national statistics in highway insecurity.
Two weeks ago, a senior Surveyor in the Office of the Surveyor
General of the Federation, Alamu Samsideen Abayomi, was snatched with his
mother and son by kidnappers on the Lokoja-Abuja road.
Two days, later, his mother and son were let go. That was not
until he had been killed in the presence of his family members. They also
collected a sum of N2.3m but claimed that Abayomi struggled with them. He too,
sadly, was from my hometown as Prof Agbaje.
The above simply tells you we lost the battle in many of the
aforementioned routes in the country. And no one is bordered!
But we cannot afford to lose the battle for the control of Lagos-Ibadan
Highway! And this is for obvious reasons.
Apart from being the busiest economic road in the South-West, this
connects the nation’s hub of commerce to other parts of the country with
thousands of trucks moving containers of essentials to the hinterland daily.
As at 2019, the road was estimated to have capacity to handle
250,000 passenger car unit (PCU) daily. It is also becoming home to many
industrial complexes especially at the Ogun end with many factories coming up
at both sides.
When
you allow criminals take control of such a route, it amounts to allowing those
who want the country on her knees have their way.
And here comes my charge.
We cannot allow Lagos-Ibadan become another Kaduna-Abuja. Last
week, Friday’s kidnap of Prof Agbaje should serve as an emergency reason for us
to call on the governments of Ogun, Oyo and Lagos to put resources together to
secure the highway.
How can we have forests that become totally ungoverned that
terrorists and kidnappers now freely set up camps and snatching citizens and
demanding ransoms?
In my opinion, constant aerial surveillance by combined efforts of
these three states would make Lagos-Ibadan route safer. Indeed, a more regional
approach would be required bringing states of the South-West together to make
the entire region impregnable.
I have had cause to make some notes on that route, of movements I,
in my personal opinion, considered suspicious and which should have attracted
the attention of our security agencies.
Who else has noticed an increased population of bike men on the
highway with bags stacked to their backs and moving in groups and some of them
stopping in groups on the road for God-knows-what.
I’m not saying people cannot have free movements but the
increasing presence of these men, many of them appearing more non-Nigerian,
should raise fears. A good study of the modus operandi of terrorist in some
parts of the Northern half of this country would also warn you that moving
en-masse via motorbikes is a noticeable feature.
A sudden surge in the population of such should have increased
interest in their destinations and locations. I do not think it is beyond the
capacity of the governments of South-West states to organize joint aerial
patrol and surveillance as a way to stop the growing madness.
I
recall that one of the major motives behind the acquisition of a helicopter on
a wet lease agreement by the Government of Osun about 2013 was security. I also
recall that once, an 80 year old businesswoman and Managing Director of Yinka
Oba Foam, Mrs. Yinka Obaleye, was kidnapped in Ilesa about 2017.
The helicopter, I vividly remember, was used in trailing the
kidnappers to as far as Asaba and even as the criminal changed locations, until
they were frustrated to release the businesswoman.
The wife of a former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly
was also snatched but was later rescued through the combined efforts of
security operatives doing a hot chase from the air and on ground.
Today, no one is certain, activities that go on 50 metres off both
sides of the highway; giving criminals ample room to plot their evil and get
their targets.
Agbaje is one of our best from this part of the country and his
contribution to knowledge is immense. Apart from that, why should anyone be
made to go through such harrowing experience? I plead with our governors to act
fast and restore the confidence of our people on that all-important route.
Already, routes such as Ijebu- Ode-Ibadan, Shagamu-Abeokuta, Shagamu-Ore
towards Ondo and Akure give you headaches whenever you have compelling reasons
to travel through.
This is fast killing the economy of our people and this goes to
the weakening of the region’s wellbeing. We cannot allow criminals to turn
Lagos-Ibadan Highway into another Abuja-Kaduna route and other routes in the
country that have become totally unsafe. The time to act is now!
*Okanlawon,
journalist, communication strategist, is also the editor-in-chief of NPO
Reports.
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