Abeg, what the hell is
going on in Lagos, the supposed home of excellence? For
37 days, six kids of Lagos Model College, Igbonla, Epe, have gone missing,
snatched from an environment where they had been deposited by their parents.
Those who came to steal them served no notice. The tormentors came by boat, and
simply disappeared.
They left no trace either. So, we were told. On the
treacherous water ways, there are no defined tracks! You can literally paddle
your way from the creeks of Ebute Ero in Lagos to Igbokoda in Ondo without
being told, park there. No cheque points with
gaunt-looking policemen demanding roger. It’s easy to get lost. Our
kids are probably nestling in the swamps, lost in the wicked arms of marauders
who have seized them for ransom.
By the 36th day, unconfirmed reports
said the baby thieves had pocketed about N10 million, with anguished parents
struggling to assemble another N285,000 to free their kids from the den of
robbers. At times like this, you don’t know who to believe. Is it actually true
that such huge sum was paid? By whom? To whom? How? The answers may be
blowing in the wind but one thing is certain. The boys from Igbonla committed
no crime. The only offense that earned them a risky over-night trip to their
present detention camp is that they dared to quench the universal hunger for
knowledge. They, in obedience to parental care, chose to conquer their
environment by investing in their future. They chose to bury themselves in
rewarding studies and not in the infected swamps of God-knows-where.
Yes, it’s been 37 days, 17 days short
of the 54 days President Buhari has been in Oyinbo country,
with his official aircraft sleeping idly by the door-step and accruing millions
of Naira in tax payers money. Sadly, the heroes of Igbonla will have no
sophisticated machines waiting to take them home after a most traumatic
experience in the cursed bosom of some wild human beasts. Their return trip, if
they come out alive, could be a rough journey in a wooden raft driven by
red-eyed idiots from hell.
Unlike Mr President, there is
absolutely nothing prestigious about their travails. They
would be unsung on return, with no protocols and formalities. Indeed, they would
be lucky to be dumped in the middle of no where, left to painfully seek their
ways home. They would be welcomed by parents literarily torn by weeks of
anguish and drenched in bitters tears of agony. The kidnapped Lagos kids are a
sad reminder of the Chibok girls saga that has drawn even far more tears from
across the globe. Like the girls, will the Chibok boys of Igbonla be
turned into pawns in a vicious power game? I shudder at the thought
and this is where the similarity ends.
What has become clear in Lagos is
that the police appears lost in the celebration of billionaire
kidnapper, Evans Onwumadike, such that the case of the boys from
Igbonla now seems a distraction. Everywhere you turn, you are greeted with
sickening hush tones while police operatives jostle for vantage positions as
cameramen click away noisily each time Evans made a public appearance. How we
love media trial! My heart bleeds at the level of operational efficiency of the
Nigerian police, and indeed, our prosecutors. The Chibok boys of Igbonla have
become heroes for further exposing the huge skill-gap in the country’s policing
system and how vulnerable all of us are. The unwarranted owambe party
put together by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his boys is, to say
the least, foolish and uncalled for.
The devils who took away, and are
tormenting our children, are watching. They hear about Evans and his family
suing the Nigerian State, and believe that he might just get some reprieve
because the system is often programmed to fail. Nigeria, led by the governor of
Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, must ensure that the six boys stolen from the
Igbonla cradle return to the safe arms of their parents. The merry-making over
Evans must cease now!
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