Nigeria Content Online

Aba, Abia—Seven
months after kidnappers snatched him at dusk on a major road on his way
to the court within this anarchic city, Chinenye Emelogu is still too
terrified to get on that road to visit his aging mother in a nearby
village.

Although he can
afford to do so, the 50-year-old local lawyer has also refused to buy a
new car to replace his battered old Volvo sedan.

“Nobody is safe”,
said Mr. Emelogu, his voice barely above a whisper. “Even old people
and children are not spared this agony. Our lives are in danger.” Aba
(pop. 900,000) is ground zero for the epidemic of kidnapping that is
sweeping across most southeastern states, turning entire communities
into ghost towns at night, destroying local businesses, forcing
families to relocate elsewhere, and leaving residents cowering behind
locked doors, distrustful even of police.

Beyond mere
formality, few evidence exists in much of this region to show that
government still functions. The police, controlled by the federal
government, are often seen by residents as being in cahoots with
kidnappers and other criminal gangs.

And state and local governments, to all appearances, are incapable of securing the lives and limbs of citizens.

“I want to say here
without fear of contradiction that the state government is not in
anyway determined to tackle kidnapping. We once submitted detailed
recording of a kidnappers’ joint to the chief Security Adviser but they
did not take any step,” says Ukpai Ukairo, a legal adviser to the PDP
in the south east.

While virtually
every city, town and hamlet in this region is suffering from
lawlessness, Aba stands out for its particular extreme of chaos.

A middle-aged Aba
based lawyer, seems to have the best description for the situation in
Aba, believed by many to be the commercial nerve-centre of the south
east, following its new status as the kidnap capital of Nigeria.

“Aba is tilting on
the edge of anarchy,” said Mr Emelogu. “I can’t drive a good car
because there is the fear that I could be attacked. If your brother is
in the United States and they happen to know, whether he is working
there or not, you will be kidnapped”.

The town, now at
the mercy of armed gangs which abduct and rob inhabitants and
businesses with little or no resistance from the police, is at the
epicentre of an orgy of fear, lawlessness and unbelievable violence
that has disrupted life in most parts of the south-east.

“To put it mildly,
the security situation in Aba is very grave”, said Prince Ukaegbu, the
Chairman of the ruling All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) party in Aba.

The situation in
Aba has gone really bad, such that armed bandits now give notices to
their would-be victims before attacking them.

Before the armed
robbery attacks on First Bank and Fidelity Bank on Port Harcourt Road,
Aba on the second of June, 2010, the armed robbers wrote to inform
these banks of their intention to rob them. True to their words, they
arrived on the appointed day and successfully ransacked the banks
without resistance.

Onya Agu a resident
of Umuahia, further described how grave the situation has become. “Even
the four walls of your house do not prevent you from being kidnapped”,
he said.

Mr. Agu proceeded
to narrate instances where kidnappers used sledge hammers to break
through the wall of houses in their bids to abduct their occupants,
residents of neighbouring building cowering and praying the abductors
will pass over their buildings.

“Earlier in the
year in a village along the Aba- Ikot-Ekpene Road, people were so
scared of being kidnapped that some of them abandoned the comfort of
their homes to sleep in churches, yet these kidnappers went to the
church and abducted them there”, Mr. Agu said.

End of night life

Aba is a town that
roost with the chickens. A typical day in Aba ends before nightfall.
Since the rate of abduction hit the ceilings in 2009, night-life has
become a thing only cherished in the memory of the inhabitants of the
town.

“By night time you hardly see anybody on the streets except very few cars and individuals”, says Mr Ukairo.

Violet, the manager of Chinna’s Place, a popular drinking joint in Aba, who lamented that her business has suffered greatly.

“These days we have
to start business earlier that usual if we hope to make reasonable
sales. Customers no longer come out at night for the fear of being
kidnapped. Even with the protection of Bakassi boys we can only manage
to stay open till around 10 pm”.

Lull in businesses

Aba, a town that
used to be the attractive destination for businessmen in the region,
now survives in the silhouette of its past glory. NEXT investigation
has revealed that businesses are closing up daily as entrepreneurs,
driven by the fear of the threat to lives and investments, are
relocating in droves.

“Things have
somersaulted in this town”, says Uche Awa, the Chairman of Nigerian Bar
Association, Aba branch. According to him, the insecurity in the state
has halted the development of the state.

“The town was
advancing towards Okpul-Umuobo, but since the thing started, people are
on the reverse – selling off and moving to Abuja. People have all
deserted Aba. Nobody is developing again. If it is possible for people,
they will prefer to take their people to other towns.” According to Mr.
Awa, harsh business climate propelled by the high level of insecurity
has lead to the closure of companies such as Lever Brothers, Nigerian
Breweries,

Aba Textile Mills
and, most recently, Dana Motors which ordinarily would have absorbed
some of the large number of unemployed youth.

Nkoye Jude, a shoe trader at the popular Ariaria market complained of a drastic fall in sale.

“Most of our
customers that buy in bulk come from places as far as Lagos. But since
this kidnapping thing started most of them are afraid to come to Aba.
The ones that are bold enough only buy small quantity.” According to
Mr. Ukairo, competent professionals, who are mostly targeted by
kidnappers, have all but relocated to places like Abuja and Lagos.

Police optimism

However, Ebere Onyeagoro, Area Commander of the Aba Area Police Command, thinks the whole situation is greatly exaggerated.

According to him, the presence of traffic gridlocks in the town is an indication that it is still business as usual.

“The thing is not
so high. The only thing is the people are blowing it out of proportion.
In those days there is more of it but now it is only once in a while”,
he said in a telephone interview.

“You will find out that there is hold-up everywhere. Is it animals that is causing the hold-up”?

Mr. Ukaegbu dismisses Mr. Oyeagoro’s argument.

“To say it the way
it is, the town is deserted. The fact on ground is that economic
activities have come to a grinding halt and nothing is moving as far as
Aba is concerned”.

Mr. Emelogu also asserted that “businessmen and all the captains of industry have all run away”.

Political kidnapping

Apart from being
the stock in trade of common criminals, investigation points to the
fact that kidnappings in the state may have a political undertone.

According to Emeka
Ogbonna, the founder of popular Participation Front, a Non Governmental
Organisation and the publisher of Popular Voice, a community newspaper,
kidnapping now is used as a weapon of political intimidation.

Recounting a story
told by a reformed kidnapper, Mr. Ogbonna said: “The political leaders
create this problem themselves. They have these boys. They have a way
of telling them who to kidnap. They may come out shouting that an
opponent is disturbing them from what they want and before you know it,
the person or a relation of the person is kidnapped to frighten the
opponents.

Over 70 percent of the cases are to make their opponents to be afraid of operating here.”

Corroborating Mr.
Ogbonna’s story, Mr. Ukairo stated that most of the kidnapping “is a
political strategy to ensure that everybody leaves the state for them
so that in 2011 they will ride roughshod over the hapless citizens of
Abia State. It is a political strategy, the proofs are there and unless
the present structure is addressed the so called kidnapping – most of
them real, some of them politically motivated, will continue to be the
order of the day”.

For Mr. Emelogu, it
is almost impossible to have a free and fair election in Abia State
next year if the situation does not improve.

“From the way it is now, nobody is going to come out to campaign for 2011”.