Sir: It was reported in the media last week how an SSS staff attached to the Imo State Governor gunned down a man who was described as one of those that came on the eve of his (SSS staff) wedding to kidnap him. Later that morning, the wedding went on normally as if nothing happened.
The story had it that some suspected kidnappers gained entry into the residence of the SSS staff, and for suspicious movements reported to him by some persons in the compound he was prompted to act swiftly by using his service pistol to shoot one of the suspects dead else, according to the report, he would have been kidnapped.
There are few puzzles that need to be solved about this case: How did he know that they were kidnappers? Is he authorized to shoot and kill like that? What attacking instrument was recovered from the killed to prove that he was actually a kidnapper or even an armed robber? Was there a Bachelor’s Eve ceremony that ran into that early morning which the killed could have been a guest? Is that how the capital punishment being canvassed for kidnappers works; though Imo State House of Assembly has just passed the Bill but the governor has not yet assented to it?
After solving the puzzles, then one expects next action from Government regarding the killer and the killed. There should not be any room for extra judicial killings else an enemy to someone could be eliminated just as this. The next thing you will hear would be that it was an armed robber or a kidnapper. Bad Nigerians are normally quick to justify their actions and inactions.
It will be recalled that Akwa Ibom government was first to moot the idea of capital punishment for kidnappers but up till today has not actualized the noise made; Imo, Enugu and Anambra that were quiet with the way they went about the issue seem to have concluded with capital punishment, while Edo and Rivers did the right thing by handing down life imprisonment instead, in respect of any convicted kidnapper.
Eki Umoh, Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });