Report says kidnappers collected N1.04b ransom, even though the govt pretends insecurity no longer exists
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigerians paid about N1.048 billion as ransom to kidnappers between July 2023 and June 2024, according to a new report SBM Intelligence titled, “Grim Reading” – even though government officials behave as though insecurity no longer exists.
The report said kidnappers across the country demanded about N10.99 billion in ransom out of which N1.048 billion was paid by victims, representing around 9.5 per cent of the total figure.
Nigeria’s worsening insecurity is driven by economic stagnation, leading more people to resort to kidnapping for survival as the pool of high-net-worth individuals shrinks, it added.
The report also said:
- Kidnappers increasingly target a broader range of people, starting with high ransom demands that are eventually lowered to what families or social organisations can afford. Ransom paid reflects the purchasing power of Nigerians rather than the negotiating skills of the victims’ families.
- Nigeria’s security challenges have become increasingly intricate, marked by the resurgence of Boko Haram in the North East, armed gangs in the North Central and North West, secessionist violence in the South East, and gang-related disturbances in the South West.
- Amid these diverse threats, kidnapping for ransom has emerged as a pervasive and unifying concern.
States with the highest kidnap rate
SBM Intelligence reported that “between July 2023 and June 2024, our research uncovered that at least 7,568 individuals were abducted in 1,130 incidents across Nigeria.
“The states of Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina reported the highest numbers of both incidents and victims. Zamfara experienced 132 incidents with 1,639 victims, Kaduna had 113 incidents involving 1,113 victims, and Katsina recorded 119 incidents with 887 victims.
“These states also recorded the highest number of civilian deaths. Over the past year, kidnapping has become increasingly lethal, resulting in 1,056 deaths across 1,130 reported incidents. On average, every attempted kidnapping now results in a fatality.”
It added:
- The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest ransom demands in the country, with Lagos and Kaduna closely trailing.
- The South East led in both the amount of ransom paid and the rate of successful collections.
- There is a new form of payment demanded by kidnapper-in-kind payments from victims’ families, which vary by region. In the South, these demands often include food, drinks, and cigarettes; in the North, motorcycles are frequently requested.
- Women are more often targeted for kidnapping than men.
- The South has witnessed only a modest increase in kidnapping incidents from 2022 to 2024 but the North has seen a sharp escalation.
- In the first eight months of 2024 alone, the number of incidents in the North has exceeded the combined totals of the previous two years, showing a rapidly deteriorating and increasingly unmanageable situation.
More than 1,356 farmers have been kidnapped across the country from 2020 and farmers pay up to N100,000 to kidnappers for permission to farm in the North.
This contributed to food inflation notching 40 per cent in 2024, the highest in almost three decades.
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