The perfect crime

By: Olugbenga Daramola

YEARS back I used to believe like lots of people that there’s no perfect crime. The notion that there is no perfect crime stems from the rather logical premise that, no matter how ingenuously and painstakingly a criminal conceptualises their crime or how masterfully they execute their nefarious crime plan, there will always be an overlooked defect in the strategy or execution of the crime that’ll betray them under the weight of intelligent and diligent forensic investigation by crime detectives.

However, recent security challenges in the country appear to be disproving this age-long notion. In the country today, kidnapping for ransom appears to have become a perfect crime that is, one that any criminal can carry out 100% of the times and get away with 100% of the times. Criminals now kidnap anybody in any part of the country without the fear of being nabbed, either immediately or in the foreseeable future. Their calculatedly designed strategy makes it appear that criminals in the society have eventually found a perfect crime in kidnapping.

They communicate with the family of their captive and request for ransom through the cell phone of the captive, so there can’t be any fear of their identity being unravelled though phone. They’re smart enough to know that if they receive ransom through their bank accounts, security agents wouldn’t have any qualms unearthing their hideous identity.

So, they insist on ransom being paid in cash. I hear that as part of the ransom aside millions in cash they now request for big warmers of cooked rice with assorted meats! With this, no one should be in doubts that kidnappers are not ghosts. They’re human beings with flesh and blood that can get hungry like other people!

As part of their strategy, they normally warn family of their victims that they should not even let it cross their mind to inform the police, else they should consider their abducted relation as good as goner. They are also smart enough to put necessary safety measures in place to ensure that the person bringing the ransom to them is not with the police.

Usually, through the captive’s phone, they tell the person conveying the ransom how to locate them in the labyrinth of thick forests. They monitor the ransom bearer from safe distance to ensure there’s no police presence around. If they sniff police presence, they quickly withdraw into their forest fortress, ‘finish off’ the victim, inform the captive’s family and immediately cut off all lines of communication with the deceased captive’s family. The situation is bad that the police appear totally helpless (did I hear you say clueless?!), when abduction cases are reported to them, their standard response is that the relations of the captive should go and pay whatever ransom the kidnappers demand for.

With the kidnappers’ well thought out strategy and its usually flawless execution, more and more criminal elements in the society seem to be settling for naija’s newfound perfect crime kidnapping. Rates of armed robberies now appear to be inversely proportional to that of kidnapping. The former seems to dropping, while the latter is skyrocketing at an alarming rate. Abduction now seems to be the toast of erstwhile armed robbers. The inability of the nation’s security apparatuses to address the spate of kidnapping has made kidnapping to suddenly become a perfect crime in the land.

Kidnappers derive their confidence and sense of security essentially from the fact that given their well thought out and ingenuous strategy on one hand and the country’s challenges soaked security architecture on the other hand their chances of being caught are slimmer than that of a camel making it through the eye of the needle. Our security agents appear to be overwhelmed by the barrage of the security challenges confronting the nation on all fronts. The situation is so bad that just about anybody irrespective of status, age, gender or location can be kidnapped. Security operatives themselves are being abducted. Traditional rulers, the clergy, expatriates, aids workers, academics, market women etc just about anybody living in any part of the country can be kidnapped. Just last week a king in Ondo State was brutally murdered (his skull was crushed with a heavy object) for daring to resist abduction.

What should be of concern to everybody is the fact that the security personnel to which unarmed ordinary citizens look up themselves appear to be completely clueless about how best to tackle the menace of kidnapping in the country.

Most times families of victims of abduction don’t bother to inform the police, because they know doing so is almost always of little or no help. The refrain from the police is often predictable, ‘pay whatever ransom they request for’. As advised by the police, the family pays the ransom, the victim is released and that’ll be the end of the story. The police invariably may not lift a finger (except if the victim is a high profile personality or it’s a case that can attract public outcry) to even attempt to rescue the victim. The kidnappers almost always smile to the bank or wherever it is they keep their booty and then return to the drawing board to strategise on how to kidnap the next victim.

The dangers in the stance of the police simply advising victims’ family to ‘go and pay the ransom requested by the kidnappers, if you love your abducted relation’ and never lifting a finger thereafter are numerous. One, it’ll completely erode the confidence of the public in the capacity of the police to offer help to citizens in critical times of need. I’m afraid if this is not happening already.

Two, it’ll deepen the sense and feeling of despondency and hopelessness in the society, with its ripple effects on people’s mental health. Three, it’ll make criminals in general and kidnappers in particular become bolder, more daring and brutal, knowing well that they’ll almost always get away with their crime and booty.

It’s a bit surprising that when somebody is kidnapped within particular state, security agents (and in some cases local vigilante) may begin to comb forests within the same state in search and rescue operation. From the trends of abductions in the country so far, even civilians who aren’t security experts know that kidnappers usually escape with their victim outside the state where the abductions take place, within the first 30mins. So, if the kidnappers aren’t intercepted within the first 30mins, they’ll escape outside that state with their victim and if that happens, that aspect of their operation is as good as 100% successful. Somebody is kidnapped in Ogun State and is taken to thick forests in faraway Kogi State in the kidnappers’ escape car, meeting several police checkpoints on the road. That isn’t a salutary commentary on our security architecture.

It’s time the government showed sufficient resolve to address the remote and immediate causes of kidnapping and other forms of serious security breaches in the country. With the ease with which criminal elements get highly sophisticated weapons these days (that even security personnel do not have) one doesn’t need a security degree from Harvard to know that there must be a thriving underground gun market in the country. The intelligence apparatuses of the country should be able to break the chain of supply that interconnects the suppliers with the gun runners and the end users. This is a critical aspect of the fight against banditry, kidnapping etc.

It’s also vital to urgently demystify kidnapping, which for now appears to be a perfect crime in the nation, because kidnappers almost always get away with their booty everyday without the possibility of ever being caught.

Kidnappers aren’t invisible or invincible. I think it’ll help to set up a special tribunal for the speedy trial (after all, speedy doesn’t necessarily mean shoddy) of serious security offences like kidnapping, banditry and terrorism.

When arrested, if kidnappers are speedily arraigned and sentenced (if convicted) at the tribunal, it’ll prove two points. One, that kidnapping is not a perfect crime, after all. Two, kidnapping just like other crimes doesn’t really pay in the final analysis.

Dr Daramola is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)