Kidnappers’ Trillion–Naira Paradise – Punch Editorial

THE new National Bureau of Statistics report that Nigerians paid a whopping N2.23 trillion ransom to secure the release of their kidnapped relatives between May 2023 and April 2024 is proof that kidnappers and other violent non-state actors have found Nigeria a fertile ground to operate. This is alarming.

This a staggering sum. Among the 36 states, it is only the budget of Lagos that is double the sum. In the 2025 federal budget, health received an allocation of N2.4 trillion.

Since Mohammed Yusuf assembled the bloodthirsty Boko Haram group in 2002, neither his death in 2009 nor the internal dispute resulting in the breakaway of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province has tamed the terrorists’ lust for blood and wanton destruction of property.

In 2015, Transparency International estimated Boko Haram’s membership at 15,000. Other non-state actors like Ansaru and bandits have entered the fray, causing immense havoc.

Lakurawa, which was a wolf in sheep’s clothing for years among some communities in the North-West, showed its true colours.

In November when the insurgents killed 15 persons in a village in Kebbi State. They reign as judges, police, and tax collectors. They find Nigeria a good ground to proliferate.

Non-state actors have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, forced trillions of naira out of their victims, and razed countless properties.

Nigeria rates an alarming 8.7 points on the Global Terrorism Index, which measures the direct and indirect impact of terrorism, especially in lives lost, injuries, damaged properties, and psychological aftereffects. The index is calculated from zero (no terrorism impact) to 10 (highest terrorism impact). This shows that Nigeria’s terrorism impact is high. It needs to change.

An estimated 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded across the country over the 12 months, per the NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report, released on December 17.

The North-West recorded 14.4 million cases, the highest, followed by the North-Central with 8.88 million, and the South-East with 6.18 million.

Many homes were broken into and robbed but that pales in significance compared to the spread and depth of kidnapping for ransom that has spawned a stunning N2.23 trillion kidnap economy.

Nigerian households coughed up that huge sum to secure the release of their loved ones at a time when the country is reeling under harsh government policies.

The inflation rate is 34.60 per cent and food prices are beyond the reach of most Nigerians.

Sixty-five per cent of the affected families were forced to pay N2.23 trillion. The average ransom was N2.67 million. This is too much of a burden for a struggling populace.

It is difficult to ignore the growing kidnap economy. Some people render various services to the kidnappers, from arms to information, food, and water supply, to fuel and financial services. Without this ecosystem, the kidnappers will be out of business.

The self-styled Department of State Services should dismantle it. The country has not invested enough in the police. The officers remain poorly housed, miserably kitted, and woefully remunerated. The morale of the average police officer is low. This encourages them to resort to dishonest acts to survive. They could also do with more training and retraining.

Between 2020 and 2024, N9.17 trillion was allocated to seven security units. These are the Army, Air Force, Navy, police, Defence Headquarters, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and Ministry of Defence.

The NBS statistics show the alarming growth and atrocities of non-state actors and the huge financial burden they put on suffering Nigerians.

The government must do more to secure the citizens. A lot needs to change.

According to the NBS report, armed robbers and kidnappers attacked the rural dwellers more than they did their counterparts in towns and cities.

This is due to vast ungoverned spaces, especially in the North. There are too many communities without police or any government presence. There should be more government presence to thin down those ungoverned spaces.

The country is grossly underpoliced. There are about 370,000 police officers assigned to secure over 230 million Nigerians.

This is an invitation to disaster. It falls short of the UN recommendation of 1:450 (police-to-citizen ratio).

Worse, two-thirds of the officers are illegally attached to VIPs.

A former state governor once lamented that less than 30 police officials were securing his state capital. Criminals exploit these gaps.

In 2018, pirates sacked one police station serving 71 rural communities and took away the only rifle at the station.

Every Inspector-General of Police promises to withdraw police officials attached to VIPs and bring them back into regular policing duties upon assuming duties. It is lip service.

Rather, more are redeployed to guard all manner of VIPs, unionists and musicians who have practically privatised the police and taken them away from policing the communities.

The NBS report says only about 36.3 per cent of those robbed, and about the same percentage of relatives of those kidnapped reported the attacks to the police. This is not right but it is understandable.

Most Nigerians do not report crimes because they do not trust the police. They have more confidence in the vigilantes and accuse the police of demanding gratification and turning citizens’ reports against them.

Even when the police respond to crime reports, they do so late and pick up innocent people long after the criminals have disappeared. This should stop.

According to studies, if the police respond in less than five minutes of a crime, there is a 60 per cent probability of making a genuine arrest. When it exceeds five minutes, the chance of an arrest drops to about 20 per cent.

In the United States, the average police response time to 911 calls is five minutes. In Australia, it is between seven and eight minutes. This is also generally true of Europe. It is the reason crimes are solved faster in those places. The police must redress this to regain the people’s confidence. It helps in fighting crime.

The government must stop cattle herding forthwith. Many heinous crimes are committed by terrorists pretending to be cattle herders.

Arms influx into the country must be halted and culprits brought to justice. The porous borders must be tightened.

More community-based action should be explored with traditional rulers and local vigilantes playing prominent roles.

To complicate this, Nigeria is the sole federal state in the world with a centralised police architecture. This is unwise. The Bola Tinubu administration and the National Economic Council should swiftly implement state policing.

So, state police will help too, and people should be encouraged to report crimes and suspicious movements without being victimised.

Tinubu must probe allegations of collusion and sabotage within the security community. The system must be cleaned up.

How do bandits hold large territories, and move large sums of money around in a country with a registered subscriber identity module and national identification number, and they are not caught?

CCTV systems should be used to catch criminals as it is in developed societies. Kidnappers should not be allowed any tract of land to extort trillions of naira in ransom from Nigerians.

Source:- Punchng