Over the past year, 7,568 people were abducted in Nigeria, with kidnappers demanding the equivalent of over US$6 million in ransom, according to a new report by SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian consulting firm.
Experts blame unemployment and corruption for the dramatic spike in kidnapping incidents.
Despite a 2022 law banning ransom payments, the report stated that of the six million, over US$1 million had been paid to kidnappers.
The findings highlight the growing threat of kidnapping for ransom, which has spread across the country. The victims were abducted in 1,130 kidnapping incidents, a sharp increase from previous years, the report said.
It pointed out that along with the frequency, lethality has also dramatically increased. According to the consulting firm’s count, 1,056 kidnapped victims were killed. “On average, someone is killed each time there is an attempted kidnap,” the report stated.
The north of Nigeria accounted for much of the spike with the number of kidnappings in the past year surpassing the combined total for the two years before in that region. In general, the northern part of the country is poorer than the southern part.
A Security Expert and Criminologist Paul Adoga told OCCRP that the kidnapping business in Nigeria has become increasingly lucrative due to widespread unemployment among youths and the involvement of corrupt officials who benefit from these crimes.
He stated that “many youths have no jobs. If the government desires to curb this menace, it could.”
According to the World Bank, almost 40% of Nigerians live in extreme poverty, fuelling instability across the country.
Adoga even doubts that the given number is accurate and suspects it could be much higher. “Issues in Nigeria are always under-reported due to lack of data and proper documentation,” he said. “Our technology system is in shambles and we are still very far from getting it right.”
Even President Bola Tinubu called for stronger penalties and a coordinated technology-based effort to disrupt the financial networks that support these criminal activities and prevent kidnapping from becoming an entrenched norm in the country.
“There is an urgent need for a comprehensive and coordinated effort to disrupt the financial flows that sustain these criminal activities, ” he concluded.
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