Crime, respite and amnesia

 Willful amnesia about willful crime, even when there is seeming momentary respite, never works. Ask Sheikh Ahmad Gumi. The frontline Islamic cleric cum famous bandits negotiator and advocate has all but chilled now, and that likely is because his ‘amnesty for bandits’ advocacy has done next to nothing in reining in banditry in the land. Criminality is an affront to society’s laws and should be dealt with according to those laws; otherwise, attempts to disincentivise criminality by forgiving ‘repentant’ criminals after the fact of their ruinous adventure, or looking the other way when they give up their ‘booty’ per occasion, would end up like merely running rings.

Nigeria seems to be straining to achieve a willful and blanket amnesia at the moment: amnesia about insurgency in the Northeast following ‘repentance’ by some Boko Haram fighters who are drilling out of forest hideouts and handing themselves in to the military; fragment amnesia about banditry in the Northwest and Northcentral whenever kidnappers let go their hapless victims after collecting ransom payment, or purportedly in some cases for no ransom at all; amnesia about herdsmen criminality, with herdsmen being dissuaded and assuaged with proposed grazing routes across the country. And it is widely asked why then the law stricto senso, rather than conciliatory inducement of amnesia, is being applied against misguided separatist agitations in the Southeast and Southwest.

But there are clear indications already that amnesia about criminality won’t serve to end criminality. Even where citizens manage to dredge up memory loss of some sort about what has been suffered, it is yet to be seen that criminal actors are done for good with their criminal enterprise. Take the Northeast insurgency, for instance. Amidst tentative relief that the 12-year-long crusade might be winding down, terrorists suspected to be from the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) as well as Boko Haram last week attacked a military unit and other locations in Rann, a community in Kala-Balge council area of Borno State. Reports said they came in large numbers and shot  sporadically as they flooded the town, forcing residents to flee: the locals escaped into the bush while humanitarian workers headed towards the Cameroon border. Meanwhile, what to do with former insurgents who have surrendered is a dilemma for government. Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has spearheaded an advocacy for communities to admit back repentant Boko Haram members into their midst, while authorities at the federal level are yet to determine to what extent those confirmed as active ex-terrorists should be held accountable for their past deeds.

Inducing amnesia about banditry has been a tougher nut. Penultimate weekend witnessed a harvest of releases of school children who had been severally abducted by bandits in Northwest and Northcentral states, and there was palpable relief across this country over the respite – more particularly for the pupils and their immediate relations. Eighteen students and staff of Zamfara State College of Agricultural and Animal Sciences, Bakura who were abducted by gunmen on 16th August got off the hook on Friday, 27th August. On the same day, another batch of 32 abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kujuma in Chikun council area of Kaduna State, regained their freedom, bringing the total of those released till date to 90 and leaving 31 remaining in captivity. Bandits had in the early hours of 5th July stormed the school and kidnapped 121 students, but a batch of 58 students was earlier on set free. And in Niger State, 130 kidnapped children of Tanko Salihu Islamiyya School in Tegina were released by their abductors after nearly three months in captivity. Armed men had broken into the Islamiyya school in May abducting 136 pupils, out of which some died while with the bandits. Nonetheless, there was widespread excitement – and rightly so – about those who returned in one piece. 

“Criminality is an affront to society’s laws and should be dealt with according to those laws…”

The release of the Zamfara college of agriculture abductees was indeed depicted almost as a closure. Presenting the victims to the state governor at Government House, Gusau, State Commissioner of Police Ayuba Elkanah said they were rescued through “peace dialogue initiated by Governor Bello Matawalle, without paying any kobo as ransom.” He commended all stakeholders who assisted in the rescue of the students. Reinforcing the tone of closure, Governor Matawalle lauded the state peace and reconciliation committee for achieving success, saying: “We thank Allah, the almighty, for having this staff and students back. As we all know, my administration initiated peace and reconciliation with the bandits as part of measures to address security challenges facing the state. We used dialogue through repentant bandits and rescued this staff and students.” But any hope of there being some closure on school kidnappings in the state soon went up in smoke when gunmen last week attacked another school, Government Day Secondary School, Kaya in Maradun council area (LGA), herding off 73 students. Confirming the incident, the state police command said a large number of armed bandits invaded the school “on Wednesday at exactly 11:22hrs” to perpetrate the abductions, and that Police Commissioner Elkanah had deployed a search and rescue team to work in synergy with the military in ensuring safe rescue of the abductees. Five of the abductees have subsequently been rescued.

Amidst the euphoria over the hostage releases penultimate weekend, there wasn’t the slightest indication of any thought of ultimately bringing abductors to justice. And it wasn’t really that the seeming respite came at no cost whatsoever. True, Zamfara government denied paying any ransom, but same cannot be said for the other instances of abductions and subsequent release of the abductees. Besides that six of the kidnapped Tegina Islamiyya school pupils died in captivity, desperate parents were reported to have paid up substantially out of the N150million ransom demanded by the abductors. The Bethel Baptist High School abduction was the fourth mass abduction in Kaduna schools within six months; and though it has not been expressly confirmed, it is suspected the pupils are being released in batches based on instalmental ransom payment by harried relations of the victims. That is not mentioning the physical toll of the abductions on victims. On the heels of the release of the latest batch of abducted Bethel Baptist High School students, the chairman of Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. John Joseph Hayab, said: “The parents were advised to immediately take their wards to the hospital for medical check-up as they were very sick and exhausted. The children looked so weak, sick and tired. So, the parents were advised to take their wards to the hospital this night for medical check-up.”

It is understandable, of course, that relations are hugely relieved and just want to move on after receiving back their wards who were abducted. But it isn’t understandable for government and its security agencies to also play the amnesia game rather than mine available clues from all circumstances of the releases to track back and take justice to the abductors, towards averting future reoccurrence. The most basic questions are: where and how were those pupils handed back from captivity anyway, and by who? And who were the contact points for information from abductors that they were dropping off abductees? If such contact points were identifiable, what did they do with advance information on the hideous transactions? Playing amnesia on these won’t help to avert future kidnappings.

Even the inducement to amnesia about the Northeast insurgency won’t cut it, in my view. By all means, surrendering terrorists should be received back but delivered squarely to the law; and it is while paying the price in prison they should be thoroughly deradicalised, retooled and taken straight out after serving jail terms to go fight those remaining in the insurgency whose intricacies they once shared and on terrains they once trod. They would make purpose-built fighters.