Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday
at the Senate plenary gave a highlight into how Abia State
pioneered the commercialization of kidnappings in Nigeria.
He stated this while contributing to the debate on Joint
Committee Report on Police Affairs, National Security and
Intelligence which was monitored by DAILY POST in Abuja.
According to the former Governor, Kidnapping of
expatriates in the Niger Delta in those days were purposely to protest for harm done to the environment by
multinational oil companies and government’s lack of
political will to address the trend, but in misplacement of
purposes, the trend began to spread to other places.
Akpabio explained that in Abia State when former governor,
Theodore Orji held sway, kidnappers would build a form of
bungalow and dug gallows underneath where they kept
victims until ransom was paid.
“In Abia state then, they will build a bungalow with gallows
underneath, and when someone was kidnapped, they will
keep the victim there until ransom was paid even with
Police guarding the compound,”Akpabio emphasized.
While calling for capital punishments for the perpetrators,
he lamented the current three year maximum imprisonment
was so inadequate that can never deter them.
“Currently, the maximum penalty is three years
imprisonment for kidnappers, and this cannot deter them
while I want to call for stringent penalty to punish them,”
Akpabio maintained.
