Aturu Calls for Mass Protest over Rampant Kidnapping

Posted by African Examiner Ayo Balogun, Featured, Latest Headlines Monday, September 9th, 2013

By Ayodele Balogun, Lagos

Lagos Lawyer, Babatunde Aturu

With rampant kidnapping in Nigeria, Lagos lawyer and activist, Bamidele Aturu has called for nationwide mass protest in Nigeria that will lead to the president, governors and others being placed on house arrest as they have failed the populace.

Aturu was reacting to the kidnap of the Bishop of Niger Delta North, Anglican Communion of Nigeria, Most Rev Ignatius Ogboru Kattey in Port Harcourt, Rivers Stateon Friday.

Kattey, 65 was said to have been kidnapped on Friday night at Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, as his whereabouts is still not known. He was said to have been abducted along with his wife but the woman was released by the kidnappers.

Aturu, in a statement condemned the kidnap of the Bishop Kattey, lamenting that kidnapping had been too frequent in the nation in recent times.

“With the latest indiscriminate kidnappings of persons who have no relationship whatsoever with the destruction of our country, such as the seizure of the Anglican bishop of Niger Delta, it is becoming clearer by the day that our professional bodies are themselves in need of surgery as they have been hijacked by people who are even baser than the worst politicians, we must retake them and use them for the rescue project.,’ he said.

The lawyer decried that the irony was that the politicians who had made Nigeria so unsafe and insecure by their reckless looting of the treasury were not the victims of kidnapping and kidnappers.

He said if nothing urgent was done, things might get out of hand in the country and that everybody must rise up to this challenge of salvaging the nation from its present quagmire.

“The way things are going, unless we act fast, no one is going to escape the calumny of the misguided miscreants. It is getting to a point that we may have to organize protests that will include but not be limited to putting all the governors, president and chairs of local government under democratic house arrest so that they can appreciate the agony people whose loved ones are kidnapped, robbed or raped go through. I like to call on those holding the bishop to release him immediately and unconditionally,’ he stated.