Undoubtedly, the state of insecurity in Nigeria has been so alarming, especially in 2020. Asides COVID-19 having its toll on the nation, insecurity, in the form of kidnapping for ransom has held the country in the jugular, with security agencies seemingly helpless, leaving hapless Nigerians to be preyed upon by men of the dark world. In the last one year, kidnapping has skyrocketed. Bandits have held Nigerians hostage. No one is safe anymore. Travelling across geographical boundaries breeds fear among passengers because anything can happen.

Kidnapping for ransom is one of the biggest organised or gang crime in Nigeria now and is seen as a national security challenge.” Truly so!

In times past, kidnappings were restricted to certain parts of the country, and were mostly political, used for negotiating certain demands from either the government or expatriate companies, to force companies operating there to carry out community development projects for the benefit of the host communities or force government into negotiations for more of economic benefits accruing to the federal treasury for the region. In some cases that time, the victims were said to be very sympathetic to the agitation of their captors.

But in recent years, the narrative has changed, kidnapping has assumed a frightening dimension, and are often violent. Not a few victims have lost their lives to either resistance or failure of their family members or security operatives to ‘cooperate’ with the hoodlums.

Kidnappers on the prowl in Nigeria

Nigeria suddenly fell into the grip of a kidnapping epidemic in the year 2020, kidnapping for ransom has assumed a commercial scale and has spread across the country. Thousands fell victim of this illicit business which is seen as a lucrative business and the shortest means to wealth by those involved. Victims had to pay hundreds of millions of naira, and in some cases, in hard currencies, in ransom for their freedom.

The current wave of abductions across the country makes every person a potential target, regardless of social class or economic status, unlike political kidnappings of the past. Terror groups waging wars against the country have also added a new dimension to it, especially in Nigeria’s northeast and northwest, whereby they kidnap school children in their numbers, both to generate fund for their criminal activities and to negotiate the release of their captured partners in crime.

In the northwest states of Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna, hundreds of locals, mostly young women and children are often abducted by these bandits operating from forests.

Sadly, however, efforts by security operatives have not matched or counter the activities of these hoodlums. It became so bad that the governor of the Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, in late 2019, had to initiate a peace and reconciliation plan to bring the bandits who attack and kidnap villagers back home, offering them jobs in place of kidnapping and banditry. The effort resulted in the release of over 340 kidnapped victims who were held captive waiting for the payment of ransom on their heads by family members.

The case is not different in other parts of the country, especially in the south-south and south-east. Edo State, which claims to be the heart beat of the country, has truly made the nation’s heart palpitate. Local hoodlums and suspected herders have turned the state to the kidnapping capital of Nigeria. Travelling on the Benin-Abuja road, now constitutes a nightmare.

Both the rich and the poor, the high and mighty, including students, top government officials and other professionals are not left out in the abduction for ransom. In several cases, commercial vehicles have been hijacked on the road and their passengers carted away into the forests for ransom negotiation.

In some of these cases, the drivers of the vehicles were killed in the process, and other abductees were later murdered in the forest either because they resisted, attempted to escape or their family members failed to meet up with the ransom demanded. Others were also caught in the cross-fires of gun battle between the bandit and security operatives.

Below are chronicles of few of the most recent cases in Edo State.

On 17, November, eight passengers travelling in a commercial bus on the Benin-Abuja highway were kidnapped, between Okhuessan and Emu, in Esan South-east Local Government Area of the state. The bandits also robbed all the occupants of the red-coloured Toyota Hiace bus of their valuables. While the aged women were left to go, all male passengers between ages 30 and 40, including the driver, were taken captive.

Kankara schoolboys captured and released by bandits in Katsina

On 20 November, another group of bandits struck again. This time, the chairman of Esan Central Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Waziri Edokpa, a professor of Mathematics and Statistics of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, was kidnapped on his way to Benin City, the state capital.

On the same day, while the dust raised by the abduction of the local government chairman was yet to settle down, news also came that all passengers of a popular Benin-based transport company were hijacked and kidnapped by gun-wielding bandits. The driver of the bus which was said to have been traveling to Abuja from Benin, was killed.

A day before those two incidents, a 400-level medical student of an unnamed university, Oghogho Christiana, was also kidnapped on the same road. News of her abduction was posted on a social media platform in Benin.