TheCable

Suspected kidnappers have killed at least 18 people in Rijana, a village along Kaduna-Abuja expressway in Kaduna state, for providing information to security agencies.

Activities of armed robbers and kidnappers are on the rise in the community.

Abdulsalam Abubakar, a community leader, disclosed this when Abdulrahaman Dambazau, minister of interior, visited the community.

Abubakar served as special assistant on rural development to Ahmed Makarfi, a former governor of the state.

He attributed the high rate of kidnapping in the area to carelessness on the part of security agencies.

Abubakar said security agents, especially the police, were fond of leaking intelligence shared with them.

He said this had made the people not to trust security personnel with any information.

“Everybody in this community knows that in the process of giving out information to the security agents, especially the police, we have lost 18 people,” he said.

“There was one of us who was seen as a very brave man. He gave a list of suspects to the security and three days after, he was stabbed to death in the presence of his wife.

“Also, there was a gentleman, Mallam Abdulrahman, who also gave information to the security he was also stabbed to death. Same with Yakubu, Sani and Solomon, son of a village chief, all of them were killed after providing information  to the security agents.

“There  are bad eggs among the security personnel, especially the police… Our patriotic inspector -general of Police has done very well because we have observed that at every u-turn along this express way, there is a police patrol van with minimum of ten personnel.

“But unfortunately, you will hear that in-between, there are cases of armed robbery or kidnapping. And if you tell policemen that robbery or kidnapping is going on somewhere close by, they will tell you point blank that they will not go because they cannot stand the sophisticated  weapons the criminals are carrying

“It is very disturbing that IGP has deployed 600 policemen to this area and not even a common chicken has been arrested. We believe that, our police have requisite intelligence to tackle these problems.”

Responding, the minister declared that the kidnappers were terrorists that must be crushed by all means.

He appealed for synergy between the community and security operatives to put an end to the crime along the  Kaduna-Abuja  highway.

“We are here on fact-finding mission because of incessant kidnapping going on in this area,” he said.

“Government is interested because it is its responsibility to protect lives and property and besides, it is a promise this government made before it was elected into office.

“So I’m here to meet with the community and see how the ongoing special operation is going. We see this as act of terrorism because every element of terrorism is reflecting and it must stop. I’m aware that, most of the people involved are foreigners but they cannot succeed without connivance with those that reside here in the community. It is tragedy that anyone plying this road cannot be sure of his safe return.

“We will look at your complaints. Government has resolved to end this kidnapping. It is a promise and we will do everything possible to address the situation. We will also protect our informants.”