Monday Whiskey is a freelance journalist in Delta State and former media aide to Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC),Chief Wellington Okirika.
Whiskey was whisked away on Monday,last week by gunmen who placed a ransom of N10million for his release but miraculously he escaped from the kidnappers den on Tuesday,same week.
Whiskey's kidnap is the twentieth if not double of such incident in Delta State. The state have been under siege, rampant kidnapping and robbery have been on the increase.
Besides, Whiskey, the wife of a serving commissioner incharge of Basic and Primary Education, Mr Patrick Muoboghare was abducted in her Abraka residence but was later released allegedly after payment of ransom.
In the last count, over twenty-five persons have been abducted in various locations in the state including mother of the Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Mr Mofe Pira who was release allegedly after payment of ransom.
Just few days after gunmen abducted the journalist another set of kidnappers on Wednesday night seized a 102 year old mother of paramount ruler of Mosogar Kingdom, Ethiope West Local Government Area of the state.
They placed N100milion ransom for her release and later reduced it to N70million.
Local police however says one person have been arrested in connection to the kidnap.
Mrs Okpa Omene, was abducted by a six man gang in her Ugbomoya waterside village, near Jesse, at about 7pm on Wednesday, last week.
As if all these were not enough, the kidnapper's spate in the state, last week grounded academic activities in the state-owned university, owing to a protest by lectures over abduction of their colleagues.
Students were sent home and the school closed down few weeks after similar incident where the lecturer from the Faculty of Management Science (name withheld) and another senior staff, who is the wife of the state Commissioner for Basic Education, Professor Patrick Mobuoghare were seized by the unidentified gunmen.
However, on Sunday, last weekend, the new commissioner of police in the state, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, declared war on kidnappers, saying Delta was indeed under the siege of criminals.
Not after, he said four suspected kidnappers were shot dead at Issele Mkpitime in Aniocha North area on Sunday by the Joint Task Force (JTF).
Scores of ransom kidnappings have been carried out in the oil-rich state but journalists have seldom been targeted.
Expatriate oil workers and family members of wealthy Nigerians have been the main targets, though a 2009 amnesty deal for militants sharply reduced unrest in the region
Just after, Whiskey gave account of this ordeal in the hands of his captors, some sycophants started circulating text messages in the state that Whiskey had staged managed his kidnap with others to "do a political fight" but on what ground they couldn't tell.
Whiskey tells the story: At about 7.30 I noticed a car following me behind, I thought it was a neighbour ,as soon as I parked, the car blocked me from behind.
I locked myself inside the car when I noticed they had guns. They forced the car open and said they were bakassi boys and that i had problems with them.
My daughter that came to open the door greeted them and they said they were taking me away. When a female neighbour came out to challenge them saying if that was how to handle a responsible person, they pointed a gun at her.
They pushed me into their car and covered my eyes. Minutes later, I noticed we were driving past communities on untarred roads and then through bush paths.
They took me inside a house and chained my legs with keys. The following day, they called my wife that she should bring N10million.
I told them, I am no longer working. That I have been at home for close to two years now so how will I get N10million.
They asked if I have a house, I said no, then they asked if I have a piece of land , insisting that I should go and sell my piece of land. They were now taking routines to guard me.
The one who watched over me at night went home, another came to exchange him. That gave me conviction that. They were from the area because when they phoned at night he answered that he was on duty.
Someone came to change him in the morning. The one on morning asked me questions saying are you not a. Journalist? Don't you write stories about kidnappers, I said no, then they put a gun to my head.
Then at a point I told the one that came in the morning that I was feeling hot and he opened the door and I started scanning the area through my blindfold.
I noticed there was a ray of light from one side, so I thought that could be a window. He strolled away and i started hitting my head against the wall, then the blindfold pulled off.
Later in the evening, he took money from my pocket that he was going to buy cigarette .
When he left, I called him thrice, he didn’t answer, and then I knew he had gone far. I noticed that the chain in the leg had slacked, then I started pulling at the door but it was not yielding, then I traced the lock, then it opened.
Unfortunately, when I jumped over the fence and got to the road, one of the boys saw me, then we started fighting and shouting. I bite his hand and he bite my eye. We were then struggling on the ground.
Then he brought a bike and said he was trying to help me, he bundled me onto the bike and was speeding off and I continued dragging with him and matching the brake of the bike, then we both fell.
I started shouting before the secretary of the Warri correspondent chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalist came around, and picked me in his car while returning from his village.
Then, few days later news of the kidnap of the monarch's mother filtered to town and pundit started wondering who could have stage manage this. The 102 year old woman or her sons? Who's using kidnap to fight the government in the state?
The state government in a bid to secure the waterways vis-a-vis the inland had set up the recently disbanded Waterways Security Committee and later charge them to collaborate with securIty agents in tracking kidnappers but did the stories of kidnapping reduce as this people hold sway in the state?
The situation in Delta State is that when the bad elements struck, its either they are sent by opposition to discredit the government or someone is out there trying to blackmail the government.
The state government don't fight the crime as it's rather they blame it no people who they perceive as foes while the bad elements catches on the situation to continue their illicit business.
They have kidnapped toddlers, traditional rulers, old and young, having no iota of respect for who they seized in the Delta. Their target is to make money and they do it randomly.
Often, accusing fingers are pointed to opposition members as mastermind yet a baron have not been arrested and persecuted. Sometime those arrested by police are not well persecuted, they are often set free and they return to the trade with new strategies.
Just few weeks ago, siren blared all day-long in Warri, when two daughters of a contractor with Italian oil giant,Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, Chief Adewale, were seized in a separate incident in Ekpan, near Warri.
Same day, a wife of Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company, SNEPCo ,employee and her elder sister son were also seized in Warri and rescued.
In all, what do we make of our secret policing and all the security this, security that? How much intelligence do these people put around the vicinity. Thisday, do our security agencies actually nip the crime? Must security agent chase criminals and blare the siren to high heaven to show force?
Why don't we secretly spread our tentacles around the vicinity and get the job done quietly? Why are Nigerians so fast at reading politics to every crime and slow at fighting the crime?
I don't understand how one should frame kidnap on oneself undermining the trauma and be at peace thereafter.
Not until a drastic action is taken, this new phenomenon would grow fast to become a syndicate its becoming in the state.
The State House of Assembly had passed a death penalty on kidnappers in the state as it's in some other states but the governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan had refused signing the warrant on the ground that he shouldn't be the one signing death warrant on suspects he knows nothing about.
To the governor, the House of Assembly ought to have by way of legislature make it in a way that the judge who adjudicated a kidnap case should be the one to automatically sign the warrant and not the governor.
However, if the governor feels death penalty is not the best option at tackling the ugly crime in the state, the governor must be seen as coming out with a new strategy to retard the crime.
It was on this premises that the local chapter of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Warri, Delta State said any lawyer who defend suspected kidnappers and killers in the law court would be sanctioned.
Chairman of NBA in Warri, Chief Gweke Akudihor gave this hint during the opening ceremony of a two day seminar organized for lawyers from the South-South geopolitical zone in Warri.
The state must not continue to remain in the jugular of kidnappers and robbers with little or nothing being done.
Authorities must be seen as doing something about the situation as power to protect lives and properties of citizenry solely rest on their shoulders as enshrine on the constitution.
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