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Child kidnapping must be fought vigorously
2006-05-15 09:03:56
By Editor
On Friday, the press, including our sister paper , Nipashe, reported a sad incident involving child abduction that took place in Dodoma.
A man named Mohammed Hassan, of Kiteto in Manyara Region was arrested, with the help of wananchi, while trying to abduct a five-year old girl, Leila Abdi.
After arrest, Hassan was also found to have kidnapped another girl, six-year old Samiyu Ali from Tandika and kept her in a guest house room in Dodoma. Both girls were rescued.
As the two children are safely back in the hands of their loving parents, another child, three-year old Humud Abubakar who was abducted near his home at Magomeni Makurumla on April 27 is still in the hands of his unknown abductors.
The abductors, whoever and wherever they are, have started some agitation, according to a report in our sister weekly, Nipashe-Jumapili yesterday.
They are demanding a 5m/- ransom from the parents before they can hand the child back.
In as much as the financial status of the child’s parents is not known, the ransom demand must surely make every parent sit up - wondering with dread, the direction to which the country is heading.
We believe that if not nipped in the bud, the incidents could soon be part of the general rot-- the social and moral decay.
It is believed that paedophile suspect Mohammed Hassan attempted to abduct the two children in order to sell them to miners who believe that the gods would be appeased and release plenty of minerals if human life was offered as sacrifice.
Abduction is a very serious crime in all countries of the world.
It’s a crime that we only used to hear taking place mostly in developed countries .
The crime has been a normal feature in the organised criminal syndicate - the Mafia .
However, in the developed countries, abductors often target very rich families who, despite its illegality, would nonetheless arrange and secretly pay out the ransom money, to get their loved ones back.
The fear is always that if the ransom is not paid until a given deadline, the victim is killed.
Abduction is a very serious crime, and in incidents where small children are the victims, we think it can be categorised with the sexual offences involving small children.
For example, it is shocking how Humud’s abductors want the child’s parents to purchase cellphone top-up vouchers of the value demanded, and transfer the amount to a given cellphone number.
One may wonder, how could that be possible for such a large amount, and even if the vouchers were to be purchased, how are the abductors going to benefit from the 5m/-?
Nevertheless, the whole scheming shows that there is need for the government to speed up its plan to have all cellphone owners registered.
What’s more, parents should watch their children’s movements and never entrust them with their maids .
It may sound difficult, but it can avert lots of miseries to parents.
Many children have suffered in the hands of the so-called domestic servants.
To help Humud’s parents, the police should mount systematic and tireless investigations into the incident.
We suspect that some guest houses, could be harbouring criminals.
A severe punishment for all those involved in one way or the other, should they be discovered, could be deterrent.
Needless to say, wananchi have a very important role to play in this, and we commend Dodoma residents who assisted in the arrest of prime suspect Mohammed Hassan.
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