Proceedings of International Conference on Research and Development, V o l u m e 3 , Number 30,2010 KIDNAPPING IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA: THE NEED FOR INTENSIFIED VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND REHABILITATION Kenneth C. Uzoeshi and Joseph B. Kinanee Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counselling Rivers State University of Education, Port Harcourt, Nigeria ABSTRACT The consistent wave of kidnapping in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria in recent times is horrific and terrifying. Even with the declaration of the Amnesty programme by the Federal Government for the 'militants \ the problem is far from being solved. This paper examined factors responsible for kidnapping, its effects on the nation, and the need to intensify vocational counselling and rehabilitation among youths in the Niger Delta region as a necessary strategy to minimize, or possibly eradicate this menace. The paper equally proffered some other useful recommendations on the way forward. Keywords: Kidnapping, Vocational Guidance, Rehabilitation, Niger Delta y Nigeria INTRODUCTION Kidnapping all over the world is a criminal offence, which no responsible government can condone. The consistent rate of kidnapping in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has not only been alarming, but hideous. Life in the region, until very recently, has been gradually regressing to the state of nature. Initially, the act started as rebellion against some government policies (especially economic and political) towards the region. However, after sometime, some hoodlums hijacked the struggle for their selfish and criminal interests. Over the past one year, there had been a steady rise in the number of kidnap- and- ransom cases experienced in the area. A good number of expatriate staff of multinational companies in the oil and gas, and construction sectors, have been taken hostage, and released only on the condition of the payment of a ransom usually in millions of Naira. With the gradual exit of expatriate workers from the region, the kidnapping activity is now targeted at the blacks, which include prominent '.Nigerians, especially members of the political class/ government officials and their family members, business tycoons and other seemingly 'rich' individuals (those who have a 'kidnap value'). This has made people to live in fear as nobody knows who could be the next victim. It is estimated that over 300 people were kidnapped between January 2007 and June 2008 in the area (Akpan, 2008), and several hundreds ever since, both within the region and outside. In 2008 alone, a source indicates that of the 19 expatriates kidnapped, only 14 had been released by their abductors (Bergen Risk Solutions, 2008). A few of such cases include those of one Master Michael Steward, the three-year-old son of Honourable Linda Steward, a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly in Nigeria, kidnapped from a private school in the state capital; another three-year-old child and a Briton, Margaret Hill, who was taken at gunpoint from a car that was conveying her to school in Port Harcourt, a cosmopolitan city in Nigeria (Human Rights News [Eleme], May-June 2007; This Day [Lagos], July 6, 2007- cited in Babalola, Nzeribe, Kinanee, Nwamuo, & Asuka, 2010). There are still several other unmentioned kidnap cases in the newspapers and magazines, and these are placed at the door-steps of some secret armed gangs like Deebam, Icelanders, Deewell, Greenlanders and the Niger Delta Strike Force, among others (The Verite [Port Harcourt], July 12-18). The Criminal Code of Nigeria (Section 364(2)) says that kidnapping is committed whenever somebody i. unlawfully imprisons any person, and takes him out of Nigeria without his consent; or ii. 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. The person who commits such an act, if convicted, is said to be guilty o f a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for ten years. Kinanee and Asuru (2009) have also viewed kidnapping as the forceful taking away of a person in a bid to keep him/her confined for a period of time and this is often, but not always, accompanied by a demand for ransom. In this crime, therefore, the kidnapped person is taken away by force, threat, or deceit, with the intent of causing him to be detained against his will. Differentiating the concept from other related ones, these authors have cited the Black's Law Dictionary as saying that the word 4 abduction\ strictly speaking, is 58