A former captain of the national scrabble team, Paul Sodje, joined the list of hapless Nigerians murdered in cold blood by suspected Fulani herdsmen last week. He was murdered in Ondo State. Sodje, who had won several laurels for the country, was killed when he and a friend went to pay the ransom demanded by kidnappers who had earlier abducted his brother, Chris. According to Akintunde Akinsemola, chairman of the Nigerian Scrabble Federation Publicity Committee, “Chris was on his way to his uncle’s funeral in Okwagbe, Delta State on August 28 when he was kidnapped at Ifon, Ondo State. The Fulani men demanded N100m but later reduced it to N1m and his wife, Flora and friends rallied round to raise the ransom. Then his elder brother, Paul and a friend took the ransom to them, yet the Fulani men murdered the two of them. Chris has not been found and the kidnappers have stopped communicating with the family.’’
The body of Paul Sodje, who had captained the Nigerian scrabble team to the African championship in Zambia in 2012, was later found in a forest at Ido Ani in Ose local government area of Ondo State on September 1. Idoani elders led by Otunba Oladele Olapeju, who were searching for their kinsmen kidnapped by the herdsmen, chanced upon Sodje’s body and that of the man who had accompanied him to the herders’ rendezvous. They took the bodies to the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.
It is quite unfortunate that large expanses of ungoverned spaces still exist in Nigeria where criminally minded individuals and groups freely ply their trade unhindered by the state. In recent times, countless numbers of Nigerians have been brutalised, raped and butchered by the bloodthirsty herdsmen and bandits without the slightest intervention by the state on behalf of the victims. In particular, Ondo State seems to have become a prime target for kidnappers in recent times. Has the state government taken cognizance of this fact and if so, what is it doing to reverse the trend? The situation demands urgency. The security of life and property remains the most critical role of government and where this role is abdicated, the result is chaos. The life of the late Sodje, who would have been 55 on September 9, was cut short within a geographical space where ordinarily he should not be the one working to free his kidnapped brother. He died while trying to save a brother let down by the state security apparatus.
To say the least, the death of the scrabble champion resulted from the failure of the state. Kidnappers use GSM numbers to communicate with the families of their victims, yet they are often not tracked down and given their just deserts in accordance with the laws of the land. While we commiserate with the Sodje family on the multiple tragedies that have befallen them, we call on governments at all levels to work hard at manning all spaces within their jurisdiction and ensuring the safety of life and property. This is the only way society can make progress and prosper. Needless to say, the killers of Sodje and his friend must be smoked out and given the recompense which their crime calls for, while efforts are fast-tracked to determine whether or not his brother for whom he paid the supreme price is dead or alive.
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