Worthless Kidnapped

Kidnapping is no doubt a current trend. At first it was exclusive to south-south militants but now, every Tom's Dick with Harrys' is abusing the "profession". The first kidnapping gone wrong I watched on the news was a girl that conspired with her boyfriend to get her "kidnapped". They demanded ransome from her parents who were obviously typical Igbo. The ransome was negotiated from fifty million naira to twenty thousand naira. The boyfriend was apprehended during the pickup and confessed.

Growing up I heard a whole lot about kidnapping/kidnappers and it made sense to define...KIDnappers, but now, we have RICHnappers, OLDnappers.
One of the rules of the streets was never to talk to strangers. It also included NOT collecting sweets and other treats that could be used to lure children and get them kidnapped. When an individual got kidnapped, no one expected any demand from the kidnapper. There was usually a ritual-money-making scheme behind each act. But nowadays it seem kidnappers have gone soft. Anyway, not everyone survive from the hands of kidnappers to tell the story. One of the lucky few was a young boy.

I was watching Mini Jojo on AIT then, THEN as in when Ali Baba still had his game show on the station. A young boy was brought on the show looking dirty. He had been kidnapped and freed. The live audience clapped while praising God Almighty. He was asked to explain. He said he was kidnapped with another kid and taken to an isolated area where he wasn't too young to understand the intention of the kidnappers. They were intended for blood money ritual. He was approached by the ritualist who made this statement regarding the boy, "Ori e ko gbabode". Loosely interpreted, using the boy for money making ritual was "bad market" because there was no wealth in his destiny. The live audience were now confused, didn't know how to respond to that. The fact remained he wasn't used and whether it was God working mysteriously or the ritualist was correct.