Rev Sisters kidnap divides Reps along religious lines

Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday were divided along religious lines while debating a motion on the kidnap of reverend sisters in Delta state by yet to be identified gunmen.

The raucous occurred even as lawmakers resolved to condemn the kidnap and attack on religious leaders and urged the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to take necessary steps to rescue all kidnapped persons in the country.

In the motion sponsored by Rep. Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe, the lawmaker expressed concern at the increasing spate of abduction of religious leaders in the country.

He specifically frowned at the prevalence of this menace in Delta state where several persons including four reverend sisters of the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) Congregation and four other priests were kidnapped.

According to the lawmaker, the crime has continued unchecked and unabated despite repeated calls on the government to tame the activities of the armed men terrorizing the state and the country in general

The House member contended that if the kidnapped persons were not rescued by the police, it could lead to the death of the victims and heighten security tension nationwide.

However, debate on the motion got critical when during his contribution, House Leader, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila drew attention of the House to one of the paragraphs of the motion which referred to herdsmen as perpetrators of the kidnapping.

Even though Rep. Igbokwe corrected the word to read armed men instead of herdsmen, the tone of the debate changed with lawmakers making their contributors along ethnic and religious lines.

According to Rep. Gbajabiamila, the House has resolved to be careful in impugning unwarranted motives on groups, tribes and religions in its dealings.

However, Reps. Ahmed Idris Wasse, Abdul Rahaman Shuaibu and some others warned that it was improper to link kidnapping to herdsmen because it connotes a linkage to the Fulani and a particular religion.

But, Rep. Sergious Ogun punctured these arguments, insisting that armed men who were involved in kidnapping in his constituency and were caught and paraded by the police in Edo state were Fulani herdsmen.

He warned that the debate should not be coloured along ethnic and religious considerations but to charge the police to deploy the N27 billion approved in the INEC budget for elections to providing high tech equipment, like drones to checkmate the menace, instead of the regular police check points on roads and highways.

Majority of House members who made contributions to the debate argued that the menace of kidnappers wasn’t limited to Christians alone, as Imams and Alfas and other Muslin clerics were also victims.

They noted that, what was required was a sustained security architecture by the security agencies like the police to curtail the criminality and not the mundane approach bothering on tribe, religion, name calling as the debate has generated.