The Booming N2.2tn Kidnapping Business 

Despite the rescue of the kidnapped medical students in Benue State by the office of the National Security Adviser without any payment of ransom, which marked a new beginning in the war against insecurity, kidnap-for-ransom has remained a thriving business in Nigeria, with a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicating that an outrageous N2.23 trillion was paid as ransom in 12 months, Ejiofor Alike reports

With the recent frightening report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which indicated that Nigerians paid a whopping N2.23trillion to kidnappers and bandits as ransom in 12 months between May 2023 and April 2024, it is evident that the lack of effective commitment by the security agencies to tackle kidnapping has made this embarrassing scourge a new normal that Nigerians have come to live with.

President Bola Tinubu’s administration had in August raised the bar in the fight against insecurity when the federal government successfully rescued the 20 medical students and seven other hostages, who were abducted by a criminal gang in Benue State.

In an operation coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) led by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the operatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, and the Department of State Services (DSS) rescued the victims on August 22, 2024, without paying the N50 million ransom demanded by the terrorists.

The hostages, who were abducted on August 15 while travelling to Enugu, included 20 medical students from the University of Jos and the University of Maiduguri.

In addition to the students, five other passengers and two victims previously taken by the gang were also freed.

Security analysts have argued that kidnapping thrives in Nigeria due to the ransom paid by the victims and their families.

According to experts, ransom payment is the greatest incentive that encourages kidnappers in their evil trade.   

Nigeria has become the only country where kidnappers keep their hostages within the territory and negotiate for ransom with the families of their victims for years without being tracked with modern technology by the security agencies.

Throughout the period of negotiation, the victims and their families are abandoned to their fate by the government.

That was why Nigerians were elated by the feat achieved by Ribadu in the successful rescue of the medical students whose families were already running around to raise the N50 million demanded by the kidnappers.

The hostages were not only rescued unhurt and without payment of ransom, some of the kidnappers were also arrested.

Nigerians had hoped that the security agencies would collaborate to sustain this new standard of operation they had set to stop ransom payment and rid the country of kidnappers and other terrorists.

But as Nigerians were looking forward to seeing the deployment of the same strategy to rescue other victims who were being abducted daily, the practice of ransom payment continued after the August 22 rescue of the medical students.

Kidnapping has lingered for too long in Nigeria, not only because of the lack of synergy among security agencies, but also because the government encourages payment of ransom.

The crime has also become a thriving business because security agents aid kidnappers and collect their own share of ransom thereby frustrating the efforts to stamp out this crime.

The business recorded its boom during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, which politicised insecurity and accorded the status of the untouchables to criminals from certain privileged parts of the country.

While criminals invaded schools, homes and farms in the North-west and abducted school children and farmers in their numbers for multi-billion-naira ransoms, they also occupied the highways and farmlands in the southern parts of the country where they abducted travellers for ransom, killed farmers and forcefully occupied their ancestral lands.  

President Tinubu assumed office at the peak of this nationwide insecurity.

It is therefore not surprising that the latest NBS report indicates that kidnap victims paid a whopping N2.23trillion to their abductors and bandits as ransom in 12 months between May 2023 and April 2024.

Unfortunately, the payment of ransom does not guarantee the safe return of victims to their families as many kidnappers and terrorists kill their hostages after collecting ransom.

According to the NBS latest ‘Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey’ report, an estimated 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded across Nigerian households in the reference period.

NBS’s report noted that 70 per cent of the incidents of kidnapping occurred at homes while 24.2 per cent incidents were recorded on the roads and streets.

The survey showed that the North-west region had the highest incidence of crime, with 14.4 million cases reported.

More than 1.42 million cases of kidnapping were recorded in the North-west with N1.2 trillion paid as ransom.

The North-central region, which includes the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ranked second-highest with 8.8 million crime incidents.

A total of N469.7 billion was paid as ransom in North-central, followed by the North-east, the hotbed of Boko Haram, where kidnappers collected N166 billion.

In the South-west, N248.7 billion was paid as ransom during the period under review, though the region recorded fewer incidents of kidnapping than North-east.  

South-west was followed by the South-south where N90 billion was paid as ransom during the period.

In contrast, the South-east region reported the least crime, with 6.18 million crime incidents.

South-east also recorded the least cases of kidnapping with 110,432 incidents, and N85.4 billion paid as ransom to kidnappers.

According to the report, rural areas were more affected by crime than urban areas, with 26.53 million crime incidents in rural households compared to 25.36 million in urban areas.

The report indicates that the average ransom paid was N2.67million, amounting to the total of N2.23trillion paid by Nigerians to criminals during the 12 months.

 “Nationally, an estimated 51,887,032 crime incidences were experienced by households. The North-west (14,402,254) reported the highest incidences of crime at the household level, followed by the North-central (8,771,400), while the South-east (6,176,031) reported the least. The result also shows that the crime incidence in the rural area (26,526,069) was higher than that of the urban area (25,360,963).

“Among households that experienced kidnapping incidents, 65.0 per cent paid a ransom.

“The average amount paid as ransom was N2,670,693, with an estimated total ransom of N2,231,772,563,507 paid within the reference period.”

An interesting aspect of the report is that many victims cited a lack of confidence in law enforcement and a belief that police intervention would not lead to meaningful action as the main reasons for not reporting crime to the police.

While questioning the effectiveness of Nigeria’s security agencies, particularly the police, in responding to emergencies, the report stated that satisfaction with police responses were notably low.

According to the report, local vigilante groups were seen as a more reliable source of security in many rural areas.

With the startling revelations in this report, it is evident that the police and other security agencies have deliberately failed to stop kidnapping in Nigeria despite the huge budgetary allocations they enjoy.