Kidnappers reportedly kill 18 whistleblowers

No fewer than 18 persons were killed in Rijana village, which is located along Kaduna-Abuja expressway, a leader in the community, Abdulsalam Abubakar, said.

Abubakar disclosed this when the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahaman Dambazau visited the community.

The community leader blamed security agencies for the spate of kidnapping in the area, accusing especially the police of leaking intelligence shared with them.

He said, "Everybody in this community knows that in the process of giving out information to the security agents, especially the police, we have lost 18 people.

"There was one of us who was seen as a very brave man. He gave a list of suspects to the security and three days after, he was stabbed to death in the presence of his wife.

"Also, there was a gentleman, Mallam Abdulrahman, who also gave information to the security he was also stabbed to death. Same with Yakubu, Sani and Solomon, son of a village chief, all of them were killed after providing information to the security agents.

"There are bad eggs among the security personnel, especially the police… Our patriotic inspector-general of Police has done very well because we have observed that at every u-turn along this express way, there is a police patrol van with minimum of ten personnel.

"But unfortunately, you will hear that in-between, there are cases of armed robbery or kidnapping. And if you tell policemen that robbery or kidnapping is going on somewhere close by, they will tell you point blank that they will not go because they cannot stand the sophisticated weapons the criminals are carrying

"It is very disturbing that IGP has deployed 600 policemen to this area and not even a common chicken has been arrested. We believe that, our police have requisite intelligence to tackle these problems."

In his response, the Minister described the kidnappers as terrorists adding that they must be stopped by all means.

Dambazau said, "We are here on fact-finding mission because of incessant kidnapping going on in this area.

"Government is interested because it is its responsibility to protect lives and property and besides, it is a promise this government made before it was elected into office.

"So I’m here to meet with the community and see how the ongoing special operation is going. We see this as act of terrorism because every element of terrorism is reflecting and it must stop. I’m aware that, most of the people involved are foreigners but they cannot succeed without connivance with those that reside here in the community. It is tragedy that anyone plying this road cannot be sure of his safe return.

"We will look at your complaints. Government has resolved to end this kidnapping. It is a promise and we will do everything possible to address the situation. We will also protect our informants."

Similarly, the Senate on Tuesday, July 25, lamented the increasing rate of kidnappings in the country, describing it as embarrassing.

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The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu stated this after Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan, briefed the lawmakers on the outcome of a meeting the National Assembly held with security agencies on Monday.

Lawan said the agenda of the meeting was particularly about the incessant kidnappings on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.

He said the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, admitted that the issue has escalated despite a joint operation between the police and the Army on the road.

According to the Majority Leader, Idris promised that there will be another set of operation that is exclusively police-designed to reinforce the joint operation.