Kidnapping started in Niger Delta not Abia, Ikpeazu replies Akpabio

Miffed by the claims by the Senate Minority Leader,  Godswill Akpabio that kidnapping for ransom originated in Abia State, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu has told  the ex- Governor that he goofed, insisting that the monster was rather "born and nurtured" in Akpabio's  Niger Delta region.

Ikpeazu who tackled the former Governor over the comment also attributed the advent of kidnapping in Abia to the exclusion of Abia youths who were formerly recruited into the evil trade by the neigbouring Niger Delta states from the amnesty programme.

The Governor in a press statement issued yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Godwin Adindu, regretted that Akpabio who ought to know better suddenly decided to " re- write history".

The statement read in part: "We want to correct the erroneous and misleading information   by the Senate Minority Leader and former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio,  to  the effect that kidnapping  in return for money started in Abia State.

"Akpabio made the declaration yesterday ( Wednesday) at the floor of the Senate while contributing to the debate on Joint Committee Report on Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence.

"This declaration by the Distinguished Senator is an attempt to re-write history whilst history remains constant. The most  anti-human crime of kidnapping in all its ramifications, either for ransom or as a form of protest,  remains a child of the Niger Delta. It was born and nurtured in the Niger Delta. Its roots go deep into the creeks. 

"Kidnapping in other places was an offshoot of the failure of the management of  the Amnesty Programme, when non-indigenes who were recruited to  the barter trade  of oil in exchange for arms and hard currency were excluded from the National Amnesty programme. The creek warlords had long started kidnapping for money  before President Umaru  Y’aradua introduced the pacification and rehabilitation programme.

"Having been discriminated against without being disarmed, the boys from the neigbouring states returned home to continue the trade and today it has snowballed into a national cancer."

Ikpeazu, voiced his support for capital punishment for kidnappers, adding that already, Abia State had enacted a law making kidnappers' houses to be demolished while any land being used by kidnappers as their den is fiefieted to the state government.

" Ikpeazu,  is resolute in his support for a capital punishment for kidnappers and believes that the three-year jail term is not  enough deterrent given the heinous nature of the crime.

 "He is currently waging a very ferocious battle against the crime by demolishing houses, structures and property that belong to kidnappers or serve as their abode or den.

" He is also confiscating lands used by kidnappers as their den and converting  such lands into  government farmland. This is in addition to the jail-term", the statement said.

Ikpeazu also called  on the nation’s security apparatus to intensify efforts towards the eradication of the monster, saying that no investor will invest in a country notorious for kidnapping for ransom.