By Cosmas Omegoh
Kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, also known as Evans, received a 21-year-jail term on Monday last week.
The court verdict followed the life sentencing he earlier received on February 25, 2022.
As expected, the recent verdict, like the first, brought happiness to the hearts of dozens who drank from Evan’s sour wine of sorrow and sadness to the dregs.
Not left out were those whom Evans’ activities kept on edge while he reigned.
Across the country last week, scores who have come under the evil called kidnapping rejoiced at the fate of Evans. They believe that his recent travails would scale down the vice. They were upbeat that seeing what went down, many kidnappers would begin to have a rethink. That they would know that Evans’ type of judicial treatment awaits them when they are caught. That way, they will apply the brakes, and thus give the society some breather.
But some knowledgeable persons in the various fields believe such optimism is rather a pipe dream.
Experts in Law, Security and Sociology are united in saying that Evans’ incarceration will not change anything.
They maintained that the indicators that kidnapping will stop in the near future are completely missing, affirming that anyone who believes that jailing a deviant will force his cohorts to back out of the evil trade is living in dreamland.
The verdict of individuals is that kidnapping will persist unless and until the appropriate actions are taken by both the government and the society.
Those who followed Evans’ last Monday appearance in court said that he spotted the image of a forlorn felon.
He sat marooned as Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Ikeja Special Offences Court brought down her gavel on his case the very last time, handing him a definitive 21 years in prison.
Evans’ colleague and co-defendant, Victor Aduba, a former soldier, was also hammered 21 years in jail.
Evans was first taken to court on August 30, 2017, 82 days after he was arrested in his residence at Plot No. 3, Fred Shogboyede Street, Magodo, Lagos, on June 10, 2017.
Justice Hakeem Oshodi on February 25, 2022, sentenced Evans and two others to life imprisonment after they were found guilty of kidnapping Donatus Dunu, the chief executive officer of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Limited, based in Lagos.
Then on September 19, 2022, Justice Taiwo also found Evans and Aduba guilty of kidnapping one Sylvanus Hafia on June 23, 2014, at Kara Street, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos State.
The judge ruled that the duo were guilty of a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of firearms preferred against them by the Lagos State government.
Thoughts on Evans’ sentencing
But despite what has happened to Evans, experts have warned the society not to celebrate yet. According to them, the final fall of Evans will never put paid to high-profile kidnapping anywhere either now or in the near future, contending that the vice had long entrenched itself.
This leaves the society with loads of worry to deal with.
According to Micah Ugala, a security expert based in Abuja, “when I saw the court verdict, my conclusion was that it was a waste of court process, resources and time, the reason being that Evans had already been sentenced to life imprisonment. And so if you sentence him to 21 years, what effect does that have?
“For me, if someone has been sentenced for life, what should have made sense is a death sentence. If you are sentencing him to life again, it is still the same thing, after he has a life sentencing hanging on his neck already. I don’t know the effect it will have. Or perhaps that is to make the family of the victim(s) have a sense of justice? Outside that, I don’t see the effect on that.”
But a lawyer, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike, explained that Evans’ second sentencing makes legal sense.
“That Evans had been sentenced before does not matter to the judge. What was important was the case before her and not the former judgment earlier given because both cases were different. Both sentences can run concurrently.”
Verdict won’t deter kidnappers
An activist and lawyer, Ayo Ademiluyi, is certain that whatever judgment that was handed to Evans will not prevent people from going into crime.
He made his reasons clear: “Kidnapping in Nigeria has become a sociological phenomenon.”
Quoting Roscoe Pound, a scholar of sociological jurisprudence, Ademiluyi emphasised that the sociological imbalance in the country at the moment is driving many people into crime.
“Without resolving the issues of sociological imbalance, conviction of hundreds of Kidnapper Evans will not solve the problem.
“Rather, robbery, stealing and associated vices will snowball amid unemployment, deprivation and want.
“Now, consider this: cannibalism is returning. People are not able to feed. There is no solution until we make efforts to readjust this socio-economic imbalance in our society,” he said.
Concurring, Chief Uwazuruike said: “What deters people from going into crime is not the punishment given to them, but the policing system. Once people know that they will be caught when they go into crime, they refrain.”
Sharing the same view, a sociologist, Mr Godwin Udenka, feared that 100 years in jail for Evans might not sway any kidnapper, insisting that Nigerians are differently made.
He said: “The essence of the law is to discourage people from doing certain things.
“But in Nigeria, we tend to be wired differently. There is no weight of the law that discourages anything.
“If you give Evans 100 years in jail, that won’t stop people from kidnapping.
“If the law for Nigerians is an effective way of changing things, probably they won’t be peddling drugs – even to the extent of going to Malaysia where the offence carries a death penalty.”
Uwala also shared similar view, saying: “No law, no amount of sentencing will prevent people from going into crime in Nigeria especially kidnapping. It is only technology that can help us do that. And the best way to go is to prevent people from registering their sim cards fraudulently.
“It is not about fighting crime. Anywhere in the world, prevention is better than fighting crime. The issue of arresting and taking people to jail, for me, is crime fighting.
“We can simply use technology to prevent kidnapping if we want to.
“When we were using land lines, how easy was it for people to use the telephone to kidnap people? One can see that it is now that we are using wireless phones that we have left it porous. That is why people are making use of it and getting away with it.
“If the authorities are ready and willing to stop it, I will know.”
Would Evans return to crime if freed?
Chief Uwazuruike believes that any belief that Evans might return to crime if freed is mere speculation. “What is paramount for him now is to appeal the case if he has not done so already.
“But where he is taken to jail, he has to be given mercy first before returning to rebuild his life.”
For Udenka, Evans might return to crime if ever he would be granted presidential amnesty, given his age. That he said will depend on the situation he finds himself.
He said: “For now, I don’t see him doing so depending on what has transpired.
“I’m not sure all his assets were confiscated. But if they were all seized, and he does have a place to start from, if he doesn’t go into kidnapping when he is out, he might try other forms of crimes given the type of lifestyle he was used.
“We have to note that the prison system in Nigerian, sad to say, is far from reformatory. It rather hardens the people, and link them up with other criminals. Once they are out, they continue. Our correctional facilities can neither correct nor reform anyone.
“I had the opportunity of visiting one of those facilities. The stories I heard left me with the strong conclusion that they are hardening institutions.
“Taking that scenario, if the man is set free someday and there is no soft landing for him, he is more likely to go back to crime.”
How then to prevent kidnapping
The candid opinion of Mr Ademiluyi is that if the socio-economic imbalance in Nigeria is addressed, that will help a lot. “We need to revisit that,” he maintained, adding that “until we honestly address that we might not make any significant progress in addressing crimes and criminality in the country.”
While emphasising the use of technology particularly the wireless phones in tackling crimes, Uwala said: “The issue of kidnapping can be prevented because there is no kidnapping that can happen if electronic communication is not involved. Not just kidnapping alone, but any type of crime that involves two and more people.
“We need to start with the tool they are using. Before they kidnap, they communicate with their phones and after that they will use their phones to demand ransom. It is because of the ransom they are getting that they are kidnapping and not for fun. They don’t write letters to ask for ransom. It is through phone. So, if you make it difficult for people to use their phones and hide their identities, or to know that if they use their phones to commit crime, they will be caught, that is the better way to go.”
He recalled that “I had written to Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) telling them that they are creating rooms for kidnappers to make use of electronic communication to perpetrate crimes and get away with that by concealing their identities, even when they compelled us to go through sim registration and NIN link.”
He expressed sadness with the way NCC had handled the entire scenario, saying: “We say we don’t have unregistered sim anywhere again and the minister put a figure to that saying they had deactivated more than 2.2 million sims, only for him to wake up to say even the sim cards we have do not have any valid means of identification.
“It was based on that, that I wrote him on the imperative of linking people’s sim card to their owners way back in 2019. Then in 2020, they jumped at it, talking about sim link, but the approach they gave to it, made it a failure because we don’t have a proper closure to that exercise. There is a technology that was supposed to drive the exercise.
“If someone who has his line bared can still receive messages, chart with his phone, make WhatsApp calls and receive calls, then what have you done? Nothing! But there is a technology that any sim that is not registered cannot be activated.”
Udenka believes that the society has a lot to play in changing the narrative.
But first, he asked: “Now, what are those things that are today driving the society into all this – materialism. This thrives in the psyche of the Nigerian people; everything people do, is based on this tendency – as long as I can get this money, every other thing does not matter. That is a very terrible place to be for our society because this tends to devalue every other moral values that sustain the society.
“So, we have got a place where materialism tends to cover a whole lot of things.”
He, therefore, advised: “The first thing we should do especially the government is to go back to the basis.
“First, why don’t we begin to have civics and moral instruction restored in our schools? We need to impart knowledge that sticks on our younger ones, knowledge that will begin to control their lifestyle. Let the educational system begin to reflect the kind of society we want to build.”
He is unhappy that “the moral basics have been broken down, warning that “we need to rebuild it; that is where to start.
“With that, we can now begin to reculture the society, particularly the young people.
“Then, there is an urgent need for government to consider creating an enabling environment for the people to effectively sustain themselves and make an honest living.
“But my fear is that as long as the values have not changed, we might not be making the right progress. It is here that the political class has to point to the way forward. It is here that the government has a big role to play by setting policies, programmes and boundaries – things that will move the people away from the streets.
“We need to begin to bring up people to see life differently. Overall, we need to begin to place greater premium on our societal values.”