EVANS’ JUST DESSERTS

For a country struggling to fulfil its vast potential, it is simply sobering to consider the things that people do to set their streams of income or simply to expand same.

For many people, nothing is or should be illegal in a country where many people are above the law, where morality starts and stops at bread and butter and its sustenance. So, a country that should ordinarily be the filter of African values by virtue of its size and staggering resources has instead become a country where anything goes, a broken sieve through which all manner of scum and slime scrape through.

In 2017, a country reeling from a rising spate of kidnapping was rocked to its heels when Chukwudimeme Owuamadike aka Evans was arrested. As has become a favourite pastime of the Nigerian police, the media trial was unsparingly elaborate. The revelations were as cutting as they were chilling.

He was immediately dubbed the ‘Billionaire kidnapper,” as he was said to be one of the richest criminals in Nigeria, raking in millions of dollars in proceeds. He was also said to have proved impossibly elusive, evading arrest for four years even while he was top on the list of the most wanted criminals in Lagos, Edo and Anambra States.

He was arraigned before a Lagos State High Court on August 31, 2022 on a two-count charge of conspiracy and kidnapping. He was said to have subjected one Mr. Donatus Dunu, the Chief Executive Officer of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Ltd whom he kidnapped on February 14, 2016, to a grueling 88-day ordeal, during which together with his accomplices he collected 223,000 euros as ransom from his family for his release.

On Friday February 25, 2022, he finally met his waterloo via a three-hour judgment by the High Court of Lagos State which sentenced him to life imprisonment. It is just desserts for the serial kidnapper who crafted tainted treasures out of the tears of others.

For all the pain he caused innocent people and their families, perhaps Evans deserves even more than he got from the Lagos State High Court. In this wise, it is extremely cheery news that trials are still proceeding against him in other courts.

If the Giant of Africa hopes to recover from its current malaise it irreducibly means that its most dangerous criminals must be stopped in their tracks. It means that those who think themselves beyond the reach of the law because they have made billions from their crimes and subsequently proceed to corrupt the morals of children and young people must be arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated. They do not deserve to roam about while expanding their criminal enterprise everywhere in Nigeria.

Some of them are the reason Nigeria has such a bad name on the international scene. Because they continue to smear the image of the country both home and abroad, they do not deserve the liberty that other well-meaning Nigerians enjoy.

While Evans begins to cool his heels in whatever facility he will spend decades in, efforts must be cranked up to bring to book all those who continue to commit many unjustified and unjustifiable crimes against Nigerians.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com