The Owukpa hamlet in Benue State’s Ogbadibo Local Government Area has been besieged by people who may be abductors.

Since there are no security personnel stationed in the hamlet, the suspected kidnappers are free to operate there day and night.

Owukpa is a border settlement between the states of Benue and Enugu. The kidnappers, who are believed to be Fulani herdsmen, are suspected of operating out of the uncontrolled woodlands surrounding the village.

 

Though several locals have been charged, arrested, detained, charged, and placed on custody in correctional institutes in the state capitals of Enugu and Makurdi in relation to various abduction cases, it is possible that the armed kidnappers were not working effectively without informants.

How and when it all began

The story of kidnapping that the peasant farmers and villagers were hearing from their children and relations in cities came to their doorsteps on a market day in November 2021 when armed kidnappers stormed the market, shot two and kidnapped a wife of a popular businessman in the market. The woman was released days later after ransom was paid.

At another point in 2022, the suspected kidnappers returned to the community. This time, a Catholic Rev. Father was targeted. Though they didn’t succeed in picking the priest, his cook was kidnapped from the parish house and released after several days in her abductors den upon payment of undisclosed amount as ransom.

In the same year, a few youths in the community suspected to be aiding kidnapping operations resorted to calling individuals, threatening them to drop specific amount of ransom in specific locations for them to pick up, else they would come for the victims and abduct them. A few of the individuals contacted, out of fear, acted as instructed by the suspected kidnappers.

Luck, however, ran out of the plotters, when they contacted an Igbo businessman in the community to drop some money in a location at a public primary school around Ahor-ogbo market within a specific time, else they would come for him.

Unlike others who, out of fear didn’t voice out what they were going through, the man bravely opened up to the local vigilantes who laid ambush around the primary school where the man was asked to drop the ransom.

At the agreed time, the man rapped some papers and dropped for the suspected kidnappers and they were arrested at gun point by local vigilantes when they went to pick the money. The vigilantes handed them over to the police for prosecution. They were all locals.

Since this time, kidnapping has become a normal business and common to the villagers who have now become regular victims.

The kidnappers have consequently marked out soft targets where they constantly attack.

The attack is majorly taking place around Ahor-ogbo market, Ugbugbu – Atamaka road, Ukalegwu – Obollo Eke road, Ankpa-Ichama road, Odobe – Ankpa road, Ankpa – Elugwu road, Ahor – Odobe – Ubafu road and Okpoga – Ukwo road.

On these roads, between 2022/2023, many school children, famers, market women and travellers have been kidnapped, assaulted, macheted and terribly beaten by the suspected kidnappers.

Many of these inter-village roads have been abandoned and many children withdrawn from distant schools in the community for fear of the attacks.

Police presence

The community is not patrolled by the police. Nonetheless, there is an outpost of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the police located at Ukwo Owukpa, the community’s far-off headquarters. Even suspects who have been taken into custody by neighborhood vigilantes and turned over to the police are typically freed with no further action taken to deter the threat. Since most police officers lack vehicles or motorcycles to pursue criminals, they also lack logistical support.

Without receiving a response, the community has written to the federal and state governments multiple times asking for assistance in the area of security mobilization so that they can raid the nearby forests.

Community efforts

Ugwueru and Ugbugbu, in particular, are two of the towns that have worked feverishly to contain the threat. To combat kidnapping attempts and uphold law and order, the two villages in Owukpa have established their own distinct vigilante organizations in addition to the state-sponsored force, whose presence is barely felt by the locals.

Local vigilante efforts

The vigilantes have been very helpful in rescue operations and have been challenging the suspected kidnappers in forests. This is despite the logistics challenges that they face.

The group known as Neighborhood Security Watch have been able to make different arrests for the police including a Fulani herdsman involved in the kidnapping of a lady on the Ichima – Atamaka road in July 2023.

The arrested suspect has confessed to the crime and currently in remand awaiting trial in Makurdi prison.

Challenges facing the local Vigilante group

The local vigilantes are faced with the challenges of inadequate training, lack of weapons to confront the armed kidnappers in their hideouts in the forests, mobility to swiftly respond to distress calls in places that need their attention and stipend to keep their families going.

Appeal

The national chairman of the Ugbugbu Development Association, Igoche Anthony, made a plea to the governments of Benue State and Nigeria to take notice of their predicament and offer assistance.

Igoche claims that the community’s efforts alone will not be sufficient to stop kidnapping. Igoche demanded that security personnel be sent to the village and that nearby woodlands be raided.