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Civil Rights advocacy Group: Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the federal and state governments to move quickly and designate kidnappers as terrorists and enforce the strictest legal sanction such as the death penalty on convicted kidnappers.
The Rights group has also called for the immediate lifting by state governors of the embargo or moratorium on the enforcement of the death penalty so terrorists already convicted are executed immediately. HURIWA applauded the Edo State House of Assembly for designating kidnapping as a capital offence.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe civil society organisation according to a media statement by the National coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, tasked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly and the Houses of Assembly of the remaining 35 states, to introduce legal frameworks to incorporate armed kidnapping of citizens as acts of terrorism just as the crime of kidnapping if created as act of terrorism should be punishable by the death penalty.
HURIWA argued that in the past couple of years, dozens of kidnapped citizens have suffered gruesome deaths in the hands of their armed abductors even as the Rights group recalled with shock the report that a 21-year-old student of the Federal University Gusau died in captivity four months after she was kidnapped alongside her two siblings.
The student, identified as Zarah Abubakar Shehu, was taken from her home in the Damba area of Gusau, Zamfara, in the early hours of Sunday, November 3, 2024, by suspected bandits.
The kidnappers initially demanded N35 million to release the 300-level student but later agreed to accept N10 million.
However, after receiving the ransom, the abductors refused to release Zarah, demanding four motorcycles and four cartons of engine oil before setting her free.
The items were finally secured after months of efforts to meet the demands.
When the kidnappers’ leader was informed, he contacted his men, who then revealed that Zarah had already died and was buried two days earlier.
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HURIWA recalled that the deceased, the only daughter of her mother, had spent four months in captivity before her death. HURIWA cited the example of several incidents of kidnapping in the North West and North East in which the already members of designated terrorist groups have been identified as the kidnappers.
“Government must move quickly to safeguard the lives of the citizens by using the sledge hammer to deal a fatal blow on kidnappers who aren’t so different from terrorists,” HURIWA argued.
HURIWA recalled that Boko Haram terrorists have recently demanded a ransom of $500,000 for the release of the wife, police orderly, and driver of Justice Haruna Mshelia, a High Court judge in Borno State.
A family source disclosed that the terrorists rejected an initial offer of $50,000, insisting on the full $500,000 before releasing the remaining captives.
Justice Mshelia was abducted on June 24, 2024, along with his wife, Binta Othman-a magistrate at Wulari Court in Maiduguri-his orderly, and his driver.
The terrorists released Justice Mshelia on September 8 after a substantial ransom was paid, but only on the condition that he raises an additional $500,000 for his family’s release.
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“We learned that the family managed to raise almost $50,000, but the insurgents turned down the offer, insisting on the full $500,000,” a source said.
When contacted for an update on the abducted police orderly, the Borno State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Daso, requested more time to consult before making a statement.
Efforts to reach Justice Haruna Mshelia for comments were unsuccessful, as his phone remained unreachable.
Meanwhile, the Dean of the Technology Department at the Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB), Professor Abubakar Eljuma, remains in captivity.
Sources from the university revealed that the suspected Boko Haram terrorists who abducted him have yet to contact either the university or his family regarding his fate.
HURIWA is therefore making a strong case for violent abduction of citizens to be classified and designated as acts of terrorism even as the Rights group said the stringent steps been canvassed if implemented, would significantly curb the rising cases of kidnappings in the Country which it described as hydra-headed monsters that must be exterminated without any further inaction by the relevant authority.
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