Kidnapping: Group Wants FG To Deploy Surveillance, Technology

• Participants at the Grow Nigeria Conversation (GNC) have advised the Federal Government to acquire and deploy necessary surveillance technology to tackle the menace of kidnapping in the country.

The participants gave the advice in a communique issued on Sunday in Abuja after a webinar conference, titled “Reversing the flourishing economy of kidnapping and banditry: Immediate and long-term solutions.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that GNC is a nonpartisan, solution-driven, real-time dialogue series set up to discuss possible people-centric solutions to the myriad of challenges confronting different sectors in Nigeria.

The webinar convened by former Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, was organised and hosted by the Africa Politeia Institute (TAPI) and the Adopt a Goal for Development Initiative (AAGI).

The conversation, according to the communique, featured key speakers including Amb. John Campbell, Matthew Page, Tanwa Ashiru, Kabir Adamu, Nnamdi Obasi, Nabilah Usman, and Cheta Nwanze.

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The speakers during the online session noted that Nigeria’s large ungoverned spaces were increasingly being occupied by criminal gangs as bases from which to act.

“As a solution to the problem, the speakers urged the Federal Government to acquire surveillance technology such as drones, satellite imagery and the likes to allow aerial monitoring of these spaces, mobile phone tracking and tracing, and thus make it possible to follow the movements of miscreants.”

The group stressed the need to promote international cooperation in terms of training, technological fit-out and back-up for Nigeria security agencies to enhance their operational efficacy against the menace.

It noted that while the problem of kidnapping and banditry were not peculiar to Nigeria, some countries including Pakistan had recorded varying degrees of success in tackling it.

The webinar discussants advised the Nigerian government to reach out to such countries for lessons and solutions to the burgeoning problem.

The communique also called on states to adopt legislation outlawing the payment of ransoms for kidnapping.

The participants stated that “there is a need to disincentive kidnappers and bandits, by ensuring that the risk they face is higher than at present, and the reward is lower.

“One solution discussed was to lower the maximum sum allowed in cash remittances as a means for making it impossible for cash from ransoms to be used easily.”