KIDNAPPING AS A SERIOUS CRIME: CASE STUDY; NIGERIA

Kidnapping is a global issue that almost every part of the world has been facing, with varying degree, for many years now. Cases of kidnapping have been reported in America, UK, Mexico, Nigeria, etc. Missing of children in United states of America is not heard of; according to National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, roughly 800, 000 children are reported missing each year in USA(Umar Sa'id Mohn, June 12, 2015). Generally speaking, kidnapping is caused by unemployment, poverty, religion, political issues, quest for quick money, etc.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, kidnap means "carry off(a person) illegally to obtain a ransom". Simply put, kidnapping is the taking away or transporting of a person against that person's will(Wikipedia). In criminal law, kidnapping is the abduction or unlawful transportation of a person, usually to hold the person against his or her will. This may be done for ransom, in furtherance of another crime, or in connection with a child custody dispute(Wikipedia).

Countries of the World have their views on actions to be considered a kidnapping case. In United Kingdom, Whale, United States of America, etc, for an action to be considered kidnapping:
"First, the nature of the offence is an attack on, and infringement of  the personal liberty of an individual.
 Secondly, the offence contains four ingredients as follows;
 a. the taking or carrying away of one person by another;
 b. by force or fraud;
 c. without the consent of the person so taken or carried away; and
 d. without lawful excuse.

Kidnapping of Children:

In all cases where it is alleged that a child has been kidnapped, it is the absence of the consent of that child which is material. This is the case regardless of the age of the child. A very small child will not have the understanding or intelligence to consent. This means that absence of consent will be a necessary inference from the age of the child. It is a question of fact for the jury whether an older child has sufficient understanding and intelligence to consent.

Lord Brand, according to Wikipedia, said; "I should not expect a jury to find at all frequently that a child under fourteen had sufficient understanding and intelligence to give its consent"

If a child (being capable of doing so) did consent to being taken away or carried away, the fact that the person having custody or care and control of that child did not consent to that child being taken  or carried away is immaterial. If, on the other hand, the child did not consent, the consent of the person having custody or care and control of the child may support a defence of lawful excuse.

In UK, no prosecution may be instituted, except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions, for an offence of kidnapping if it was committed against a child under the age of sixteen and by a person connected with the child, within the meaning of section 1 of the Child Abduction Act 1984.

Kidnapping is punishable with imprisonment or fine at the discretion of the court. There is no limit on the fine or the term of imprisonment that may be imposed provided the sentence is not inordinate.

It invariably includes committing false imprisonment, which is the common-law offence of intentionally or recklessly detaining the victim without lawful authority. The use of force to take and detain will also be regarded as an assault, and other related offences may also be committed before, during or after the detention (Wikipedia)

A parent should only be prosecuted for kidnapping his/her own child, in exceptional cases, when the conduct of the parent concerned is so bad that an ordinary right-thinking person would immediately and without hesitation regard it as criminal in nature.
Law in the United States follow from English common law.

Kidnapping is one of the major problems being experienced in Nigeria. Current situation of it in the country could be likened to an inferno drawing both the old and the young; the rich and the poor;  and the local and international communities to itself(Ijeoma Daberechi Odah, 2010). Hardly a day passes in Nigeria without fresh incidents of kidnapping making the headlings. For some jobless youths, it is now a paying or lucrative business venture, and no one is safe anymore. Everyday in the country, many people (including foreigners) are kidnapped for reasons ranging from economic, personal grievances to political. Some kidnapped individuals are killed before they are rescued while others are rescued alive, depending on the reason(s) of the kidnapping or the things that transpired in the course of kidnapping. Millions of naira are often demanded from the relatives of the kidnapped persons, by the kidnappers, as ransom for their release.

Kidnapping in Nigeria has recorded a lot of casualties; the most noticeable one being the kidnapping of  276 Chibok schoolgirls, on April 14, 2014.

However, current fire or wave of kidnapping in the country began with the abduction of some expatriate oil workers by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta( MEND ) in late 2005 as a means of alerting the whole world of the many years of injustice; neglect, exploitation, mergination and underdevelopment of Niger-Delta region of the nation. Afterwards, there was a shift in objective and target, and this shift has been overwhelming; from kidnapping of expatriate oil workers to relatives of politicians, to relatives of those in Diaspora/abroad and now to anybody at sight. Kidnapping takes place anywhere and anytime in Nigeria; in the one's home, in churches, in the hospital, in hotels, on the street, etc. As it became popular in the country, kidnapping later spread to other parts/states of the country, mostly for monetary purposes.

This is a serious offence in every country of the world, Nigeria very well inclusive. This type of crime (and human trafficking ) appears to have been taken care of in Chapter 31 of Nigeria's constitution and reads thus:

Offences against Liberty:

Slave dealing:
364.  Any person who-

(1) unlawfully imprisons any person, and takes him out of Nigeria, without his consent; or

(2) unlawfully imprisons any person within Nigeria in such a manner as to prevent him from applying to a court for his release or from discovering to any other person the place where he is imprisoned, or in such a manner as to prevent any person entitled to have access to him from discovering the place where he is imprisoned; is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for ten years.

365.  Any person who unlawfully confines or detains another in any place against his will, or otherwise unlawfully deprives another of his personal liberty, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

However, due to the fact that kidnapping had become a daily occurrence in Nigeria, almost all the states in the country took a stricter measure to put an end to it thus;

On February 19, 2009, Enugu state House of Assembly unanimously passed into law a bill making kidnapping with the use of gun a capital offence in the state, an offence that previously carried a ten-year prison sentence upon conviction. Under the new law, kidnapping without the use of gun would still be punishable with a sentence of ten years in prison. As reported, Abia-state to a similar measure to stop kidnapping in the state.

According to report, on February 18, 2009 Rivers state House of Assembly passed a Kidnapping Prohibition Bill, which was sponsored by the leader of the state House, Honourable Chidi Lloyd. According to the bill, kidnapping carries a sentence of life imprisonment upon conviction' while attempted kidnapping entails a 20-year prison term without the alternative punishment of a fine. The House in Rivers state rejected motions to make kidnapping a capital offence, on the basis that such punishment is already available in the country's penal codes for specified offences. However, some people in the state pressed for kidnapping to be made a capital offence in the state, and very prominent personality among them was the then governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi(presently the Minister of Transport). Amaechi argued that kidnapping should be seen or treated in the same way armed robbery is treated in the state and country at large.