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Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council,
Wahab Oba, said his new project is to rehabilitate his abductors if the federal
government gives him backing and support.

He spoke on his ordeal in the hands of his kidnappers. Excerpts:

Kidnappers’ grouse

At a time we were discussing with these boys, they told us what
led them into the crime was a result of neglect by the government. They alleged
further that politicians used them to get to offices to loot the treasury, only
to later abandon them.

Hence, they resorted to using their own brain to make money
through kidnapping. It was at this stage that the thought of rehabilitating
them came to me. I even promised to swear for them to know how genuine my
proposal was.

Rehabilitation for
kidnappers

Even their leader said if he has a means of livelihood, of
getting N15, 000 as salary every month, he would drop the guns. They said
amnesty promised them by government is not forthcoming, when he said this, it
was then I started thinking how do I get to these boys if we are eventually
released?

I want to use my
influence as Chairman of NUJ to get in touch with their state governor, which I
am already doing. I also desire to connect the president to give them amnesty,
to reach understanding. It may not be announced. To let them come and not
arrest them or prosecute them, to give them that freedom to come out and
surrender their guns. When they do that, I will now rehabilitate them. I will
now re-orientate them.

I will now repackage
them. When we do that, they would have means of livelihood. Then we can now use
them as agent to change others who are still in the bush, to have a better
life. That is the target. That also depends on if they call me. I gave them my
own phone number, but they didn’t give me their own numbers. So, if they call
me and trust me, because they didn’t trust anybody, then we will now see how to
do that.

Kidnappers have
informants

Another worry about the operations of the kidnappers is that
they operate effective networking with their informants. Investigations while
with them revealed that their informants are mostly females who gave them
adequate information about police operations.

The truth is that, consistently, they have people who informed
them on the operations of the police and people outside. How the police were
moving, how police are strategizing. Somebody kept informing them and that
voice is a woman’s voice. So, they have informant. Even apart from that, they
have informants in the community.