Research on Sudden Death & Kidnapping: Kidnappers’ Modus Operandi & the Way Forward.

– Summarized Perspectives on Osun, Ekiti and Ondo State Resurgence.

#Caveat: This is not an all-or-none law (opinion) on this subject matter.

Disclaimer. This writeup is a random analysis based on observations, the psychology of kidnappers, victims’ experiences, general profiling and attitudinal diagnosis. It is not targeted at anyone and therefore, no liability is incurred from misuse and unlawful broadcast without permission.

Groups recently implicated as kidnappers = Fulani herdsmen militia outfit.

Target Population = Anyone without age, political or religious barrier.

Primary gain = Obedience to a well-known hierarchical and expansionist tendency of the kidnap kingpins.

Secondary gain = Financial, Money and Food.

Place of Action =

  1. Highways
  2. Interstate Roads
  3. Trunk B roads

Modes of Operation

  1. The Spy/Syndicate System
  2. The Collegiate System
  3. The Cruder Brute-Force System

THE SPY SYSTEM

Who are the spies???

Women kidnap victims are preferred.

The overwhelming majority of terrorists’ kidnap victims are women – preferably young girls. The vulnerable kids elicit more intense publicity craved by the insurgents who are men. The captives who are not killed are forcibly married to the captors as child brides.

  1. Law enforcement agents. (The Bad Eggs) inclusive of Vigilantes.
  2. Jobless road repairers
  3. Busybodies sitting at road junctions.
  4. Roadside hawkers

Mechanism of Action.

Unauthorized peeping inside the car by any of those listed above to achieve any of the following:

  1. Identify wealthy individuals
  2. Identify the presence of armed guards
  3. Rating of vehicles as a measure of wealth
  4. Identification and isolation of all vehicles with government plate number as a MUST for kidnap, even if with the driver alone.

Means of achieving the intended goal by spies:

  1. Undue friendliness at contact with the bad eggs among security agents
  2. Undue familiarity from roadside hawkers and persistent hanging around vehicles even when there is no intention from road user to patronize them.
  3. Unwarranted/unsolicited waving @ vehicles by unknown people at road junctions to gauge driver’s mood or see face clearly.
  4. Presence of and fiddling with the phone by one or all of these spies at contact.
  5. Eventual call to kidnappers in front for action.

THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM

In this case, the kidnappers are of the same tribe working together at a very short distance to each other.

Mechanism of Action.

You suddenly see a man in front of you beside the road in an unexplained area, that is: an area leading to nowhere.

When you drive close to him and after sizing up your car from a distance, he enters the bush again in your presence.

Please, note that when you drive to the point of his disappearance into the bush, you can’t see any road leading to the bush.

By then. he has called his colleagues who are at a very short distance away to effectuate the kidnapping.

Please, note the moment you see this group of kidnappers in front, you have already walked into an ambush as some of them are already behind you.

Any reverse, U-turn or attempt to escape can mean instant death.

THE CRUDE BRUTE-FORCE SYSTEM

Latest entrants into the kidnapper’s strategy as seen with the Osun Prof of recent and those on Kaduna Abuja road.

This type of kidnappers are crude and very brutal.

They are great risk takers. They care less about security agencies and their actions comes with multiple casualties.

They work alone and kidnap anyone they see, no matter how poor.

They have no time to access anyone.

They also kidnap in large numbers to increase their chances of great profit while collecting ransoms on individual heads.

Mechanism of Action.

They jump at any road of their choice at any time of the day and start shooting at the incoming traffic, no matter the speed.

They kill as many as those hit by bullets at random and carry away those who survive the wreck that ensued after the sporadic shooting.

Post-kidnapping Behaviors and Occurrences

After kidnapping, the kidnappers make everyone to understand that they are in serious business by doing any or all of the following:

  1. Incessant threatening speech at gunpoint.
  2. Regular unforced slaps and kicks.
  3. Removal of shoes and slippers of victims to make them miserable while walking on sharp thorns, shrubs etc. to create injuries on their feet to ensure early soberness.
  4. Walking in circles for hours to disorient the victims in terms of time and place and position.

The victims feel they have walked so far away from the point of kidnap while they are still close to the same point.

They also cannot guess time accurately anymore.

  1. Late initiation of negotiation until the victims is thoroughly sober and dying slowly.
  2. Release after collection of ransom payments which are determined by physique, ID cards, ATM cards, job papers/signs seen in the car or on the victims e.g. stethoscope
  3. Death.
    women kidnap victims abound

    Women are often the kidnapped victims of terrorist gangs who capture them for moneymaking through ransom payments and to become forced marriage partners or sex slaves for their captors.

Causes of Death in Kidnapping

This occurs rather too often; in some cases, from:

  1. Exhaustion
  2. Ongoing medical ailments prior to kidnap with no available medications for days.
  3. Snake bites and bites from other poisonous animals in the bush
  4. Dehydration and acute renal injury from lack of water and severe anxiety with over perspiration.
  5. Hemorrhage from multiple gang rapes.
  6. Gunshot from the kidnappers due to:
  7. Attempt to stop incoming speeding traffic.
  8. Attempt to escape.
  9. Too Weak victim who cannot move again.
  10. Failed rescue operations by security agencies.

Kidnappers Collecting Ransom after Death

Why do they still collect ransom after death?

The kidnappers see each operation as an investment and hence no matter what happens to the victim(s) they still want to maximize the gains of each operation.

Is the release of kidnap victim possible without collecting ransom?

Yes, very possible.

This is common in the spy system where the spy calls to say that they have kidnapped the wrong person or that the person kidnapped will generate too much heat and stress for them from the security agencies and the community.

Best way to handle kidnappers.

  1. Avoidance

  2. Avoidance

  3. Avoidance
  4. Once kidnapped, you’ve lost all control. If you attempt to escape, you get killed. If you don’t try to escape, you may STILL die.
  5. Avoidance at all cost is the only way out.

Way forward

  1. Youth employment opportunities
  2. National disorientation and reorientation on tribalism and expansionist tendencies.
  3. Regular and permanent nonstop highway patrols at 10 minutes intervals with security agents in mufti.
  4. Increase wages and motivational weapons for security agencies.
  5. High premium insurance coverage for security agents.
  6. Rapid response helicopter with night-vision equipment and thermal detector under foliage.

  7. Consider amnesty for kidnappers and engagement in vocational trade and education.

  8. Stringent punishment for kidnappers and conspirators.
  9. Community anti-kidnap civilian security measures.
  10. Close audit and CCTV monitoring of law-enforcement agents in-charge of government security agencies’ armory.
  11. Massive mop up of illegal guns in the community and neutralization of all black-market sources for weapons procurement.
  12. Employment of anti-kidnapping spy agents across and within the communities.
  13. Whistleblower compensation for anyone who exposes kidnappers, bandits, dangerous herdsmen and terrorists.

Culled from a Nigerian social-media platform

 

 

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