It is noticeable; kidnapping has led to the loss of lives and money in Nigeria. Many of victims have been killed in the course of their custody, abduction or release. Many more have been injured. It’s most unfortunate. This is in addition to huge amounts of money lost to ransom takers. Alas, Nigeria should never have got here!
However, the kidnapping business in Nigeria has been mostly perpetrated by criminal gangs and violent groups, usually pursuing political agendas. The underlying logic of the kidnapping enterprise is that the victim is worth a ransom value and they or their proxy have the capacity to pay. It’s sometimes, the government that waters the garden of the crime, by paying the ransom. What a recipe for disaster. Whenever there is an abduction of students, the government gets several hundred millions out of its account and negotiates a deal with the abductors, and then the officials of the state take their shares. They (the state officials) would be in two advantageous positions – the Nigerians would be in celebration with them and establish a diplomatic link with the abductors. Do you think anyone who runs a business like this would let it collapse? Negative.
Nigeria, has the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases. Other countries high up on the list included Venezuela, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. This, by and large, happens owing the involvement of organized violent groups such as militants, bandits and Boko Haram insurgents who use kidnapping to make their insurgency stay afloat. The insurgents engage in single or group kidnapping as a means of generating money to fund their activities.
Nothing changes, if some state officials are in the business and the government does not provide stricter measures, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty for the offenders. Chukwudi Dumee Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans, for instance, is a Nigerian alleged kidnapper who is a native of Nnewi, Anambra State. He is sometimes referred to as “The Billionaire Kidnapper” because the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) believe he is one of the richest criminals in the kidnapping business in Nigeria. In some of his operations, he made amounts of up to 1 million dollars.
Bashir Shuaibu Jammaje can be reached on [email protected]
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