Group urges FG to create counter- kidnapping squad

By Jethro Ibileke

A group, the Civil Empowerment and Rule of Law Support Initiative (CERLSI), has urged the Federal Government to create a counter-kidnapping squad to tackle the resurgence of kidnapping in the northern parts of the country.

CERLSI is an NGO that works to engage citizens on elections, the rule of law, human rights and community advocacy made the suggestion while raising alarm about the current spate of kidnapping attributed to bandits, especially in the North West geopolitical zone of the country.

CERLSI’s Deputy Executive Director, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku, made the plea in a statement on Thursday in Benin City Edo State.

He noted that Nigerians in the North Western part of the country are currently living with their hearts in their mouths and sleeping with only one eye closed.

He therefore called on the Nigerian government to put adequate security measures in place to stem incessant kidnappings in the North West axis of Nigeria, even as he tasked the federal government to create a crack kidnapping squad to tackle the menace.

According to him, “The protection of lives and property, and the provision of security for the people is a primary constitutional reference point which governments the world over owe their citizens.

“In the past administration of Muhammadu Buhari, these issues appeared to have been nipped in the bud. But we are taken aback that kidnapping and abductions have resurfaced in the North East and North Western parts of Nigeria.”

Mr Etemiku called on the Nigerian government to create a counter-kidnapping squad (CKS), made up of a crack team of military, police and paramilitary personnel, with a mandate to collect and manage intel in communities where these incidents of kidnapping for ransom prevail.

“Our people in the North West live precariously. We cannot work with them, and this is because these issues of insecurity are always in the way of our work in the area of capacity building and elections”, Mr Etemiku said.