Still On The Kidnapping Epidemic

Christmas is around the corner, and for many Nigerians who usually travel to their hometowns to celebrate with family and friends and attend other social functions, there is a gnawing fear about whether they can make the journey and return home safely and intact. This is because such movements have become riskier these days, owing to the danger posed by kidnappers in the country, many of whom operate along the highways.

Sadly, kidnapping for ransom and other sinister purposes has become an endemic crime in Nigeria. In fact, one report states that Nigeria has one of the highest rates of kidnapping for ransom in the world. It shares unenviable company with Venezuela, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia in this regard.

Kidnapping was popularised as a violent strategy by Niger Delta agitators, who abducted expatriates working in oil installations to draw attention to the poverty and environmental disaster oil exploration had inflicted on their land.

Subsequently, terrorists and bandits adopted the practice to raise money for their operations. Now, many small bands of criminals are involved in it, and it has grown into a thriving billion-dollar criminal enterprise across Nigeria.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about 2,235,954 Nigerians were abducted between May 2023 and April 2024. This figure, released in its Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024, also estimated that Nigerians spent approximately N2.23 trillion on ransom payments to kidnappers during the same period.

A more recent report by SBM Intelligence indicated that N2.56 billion was paid in ransom between July 2024 and June 2025. The agency reported that kidnapping for ransom had become one of the fastest-growing criminal enterprises in Nigeria, with grave socio-economic consequences. It not only robs people of their hard-earned money, rendering them poorer, but also discourages potential foreign investors from bringing their businesses to Nigeria.

Sadly, there is hardly any day in which cases of kidnapping are not reported across the country. People are abducted either singly or in groups.

A young lawyer, Peace Onyesom Udoka, and her sister, Gift Onyesom, were kidnapped on Friday, 26 September 2025, along the Okene–Auchi highway in Kogi State, while travelling home from her Call to Bar ceremony in Abuja three days earlier. They were in a public transport bus headed for Benin, Edo State. The abductors initially demanded a ransom of  N100 million for their release, which was later reduced to N20 million per person, totalling N40 million.

Another victim was Aisha Wahab, a graduate kidnapped from Igbira Camp in Auchi, Edo State on Saturday, 11 October, whose case came to public attention as activists used social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to coordinate efforts with the victim’s family to raise funds to meet the kidnappers’ N20 million demand.

In June, women from the Agbarho community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State staged a protest over the disappearance of at least 26 children between three and 10 years old in the community in recent months.

These are only a few cases that draw media attention; most incidents, however, receive no mention. In fact, there is hardly anyone in Nigeria who does not know a relative, friend, or community member who has been kidnapped.

Buses travelling from one part of Nigeria to another are routinely hijacked by kidnap gangs and taken into the bush, from where the relatives and friends of the victims are contacted to raise the demanded ransom. Some victims emerge alive, while others do not.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian government does not appear to be giving this crime the attention it deserves. While the Nigerian Police Force routinely parades suspected kidnappers, the crime is not abating in any way. Travellers within the country – both by road and rail – move around with palpable fear of kidnappers. And they know that, despite the tracking technologies available, they are unlikely to be rescued. The two women mentioned earlier remained in captivity for four days and two weeks, respectively, yet no serious effort was made to track their captors and free them until their ransoms were paid.

In our opinion, the police and other security agencies are not doing enough to prevent kidnappings or to rescue those abducted. This lackadaisical posture of the police can only embolden the criminals.

As a newspaper, we state that since the military has assumed the front-line role in combating terrorism, the police should take it as an ultimate responsibility to roll back the rampant cases of kidnapping in Nigeria. Its present lethargy is not acceptable.

As is customary with security agencies, the Christmas period is a time when they step up their operations to ensure a smooth celebration. We urge them to redouble their efforts, especially in districts notorious for kidnappings.

Beyond this season, the police, in collaboration with other security agencies, must come up with a workable action plan to end the menace of kidnapping for ransom in the country.