CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
There is no doubt that kidnapping in Nigeria is in part, a syndrome from many parts of the world- Iraq, the Philippines, Afghanistan, India, Russia, Palestinian Territory, Mexico, Nepal and American (Abati, 2009). Episodes of ransom kidnapping in the annals of American history include the case of four year old Charlie Ross in 1874 (Cyntrax, Wilson and Wilson as cited in Ugwuoke, 2010 :197) and Lindbergh case in 1932 ( Allison, 2000: 110). In the Lindbergh’s case, Lindbergh’s child was the centre of a plot, the suffering of the child’s parents, and the difficulties of the police enquiry, were exacerbated by widespread speculation, misinformation and serial random notes (Alexander and Klein 2009: 16). Alexander and Klein further noted that in the 17th century, children were stolen from their families and exported to North American colonies as servants and labourers, hence, ‘kid’ meaning ‘child’ and ‘nap’ or ‘nab’ meaning ‘to snatch’. Kidnapping was therefore connected to the staling of children but the word has come to be used interchangeably with both children and adults. Nevertheless, past account of kidnapping revealed that death penalty was ordered as a punishment for kidnapping in ancient Rome when the Emperor Constantine (AD 315) became so alarmed by the incidence of the crime (Akpan, 2010: 33).
However, the early African societies were marked with the incidence of slave trade. In this vein, Ugwu (2010 : 2)., asserted that the weak and the poor were captured and sold into slavery. Ugwulebo (2011: 26) noted that during the colonial era, the colonialists came to some parts of the world, such as Africa, took their able bodied men and women and sold them to far away nations who needed human labour for their plantation and other services. (Onimode as cited in Ugwulebo, 2011: 26-27) had noted that gun powder, gin, mm and other materials were offered by the Europeans to the Africans in exchange for slaves shipped annually from ports in Nigeria. Therefore, slavery and kidnapping were like two sides of a coin.