This article by learned Senior Advocate, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, discusses the case of Abanobi v The State, in which a 98 year old woman was kidnapped and kept in the boot of a vehicle by the Appellant and co-accused, examines the elements of the offence of kidnapping and its proof beyond reasonable doubt, while making suggestions to Government on what steps that must be taken to curb this evil, which has become a commercial venture in Nigeria
Introduction
According to the learned authors of Black’s Law Dictionary, kidnapping is “the crime of seizing and taking away a person by force or fraud, often with a demand for ransom (also manstealing)”. For Collins English Dictionary, to kidnap is “to carry off and hold (a person), usually for ransom”. This is corroborated by the learned authors of Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law as, “the forcible abduction or stealing away of a person, whether a man, woman, or child. It is an offence punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment”. Morally speaking, it is wrong to steal anything, how much less a human being.
In the ordinary course of events, the law frowns on the intent to take away something, with the hope of depriving the owner thereof its permanent use. To kidnap a person therefore, connotes that the kidnapper intends to deprive the victim of the use of his or her life, which is why the law places the offence of kidnapping in the same status as murder, with some statutes prescribing the maximum penalty of death.
