3,620 Persons Abducted Across Nigeria’s 6 Geo-political Zones In 1 Year — Don   

About 3,620 persons have been kidnapped with about 570 killed during the kidnap incidents in Nigeria between July 2022 and June 2023 with the attacks taking place more in North-West geo-political zone of the country where bandits were also killing residents.

A lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Prof. Freedom Onuoha, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Calabar on Thursday.

Prof. Onuoha, who was represented by Dr. Anthony Okoye of Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, shortly after deliverying a paper at the 6th Annual executive convergence 2023, which held at Transcorp Hotel Calabar, Cross River State, asserted that, “no geo-political zone in the country is free from attacks by kidnappers and bandits.”

The event organised by the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies, had stakeholders drawn from all walks of life ranging from the military, para-militartry services and academia in attendance.

In his early presentation on the topic ‘Reversing Trend of Kidnapping in Nigeria through Optimization’, the academic don stated that the most pressing challenge currently in Nigeria was the worsening state of insecurity characterised by upsurge in violent conflicts and crimes.

He stressed that the pattern of daily lives in Nigeria was increasingly being disrupted by explosions of kidnapping, pepetrated by violence.

The academic don averred that statistics from SBM Intelligence of 2023, showed that between June 2022 and July 2023, about 3,620 persons were abducted in 582 kidnapping-related incidents in Nigeria.

Earlier, the Speaker, Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, stated that poverty is no justification for youths engaging themselves in kidnapping and other forms of deviant behaviours.

Ayambem, who identified “get rich quick” syndrome by the youths as being responsible for criminality, stressed that if poverty was to be a root cause of criminality, he would have been a criminal given the poor background even as he called for caution among the youths so that they won’t run into problem with the law of the land.