The Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, has decried the helplessness of the security agencies, especially the police in stemming the raging wave of insecurity and kidnapping in the country.

Condemning the abduction of four Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, officials and their driver on Sunday in Abia State, NPAN, in a statement by its President, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, said the latest incident called to attention “the ineffectual and grossly incompetent state of the systems responsible for securing lives and property in the country.”

Lamenting that abduction rate was growing exponentially, Ogunshola said helpless response of the security agencies to curbing the crime was a source of great concern.

His words: “We need to inquire, once again, about the capacity and present structure of the nation’s policing system to effectively rise to such challenges, especially in the context of crime prevention.

Let no one deceive himself by continuing to imagine, let alone hope, that we can solve the problem of kidnapping, robberies and other related crimes without a wholesome overhaul of the Nigeria Police system, especially its cumbersome central command structure.

A police system that is not based on adequate knowledge of the social dynamics of its operating locale cannot provide the appropriate response to the complexities of present day’s crimes.

“Knowledge of the local environment by those who live in and are a part of the environment that they are engaged to police will always remain vital.  To ignore this is to continue to embrace failure.

It would have been easier for a network of state or zonal police systems to deal with the matter at hand than any special team of detectives hurriedly raised to ferret out the kidnappers.”