4,700 kidnapped under Tinubu as mass abductions rock Nigeria

By Abimbola Tooki

4,700 kidnapped under Tinubu as mass abductions rock Nigeria

More than 4,700 people have been kidnapped since President Bola Tinubu came into power last May, risk consultants SBM Intelligence have said.

Kidnapping has become a lucrative venture for people driven by economic desperation to raise funds.

Nigeria faces security crises across its six geopolitical zones, including Boko Haram, bandits, criminal youth gangs, sea piracy and armed separatist agitation. All the groups, as well as others, take part in kidnapping. Ransom payments have become the dominant motivation for kidnapping due to Nigeria’s struggling economy, rising inflation and high unemployment rates.

Apart from ransoms of money, gangs have in the past demanded foodstuffs, motorcycles and even petrol in exchange for the release of hostages.

"Nigeria's poor economy creates the conditions for kidnapping. Over the past year, the government has not been able to fix its foreign exchange problem," William Linder, a retired CIA officer and head of 14 North, an Africa-focused risk advisory, says.

"Food prices have skyrocketed, especially over the past six months. The perception of corruption continues."

Alex Vines, director of the Africa programme at the Chatham House think-tank agrees.

He said that the recent attacks can be tied to Nigeria's underperforming economy and the inability of the forces to disrupt the kidnapping gangs' activities.

Rising food costs have been worsened by the farmers not being able to access their fields to grow food as they fear being attacked or kidnapped.

"In large swathes of these areas, armed gangs have supplanted both the government and traditional rulers as the de facto authority," Vines says.

The gangs often extort money from people, but the fact that they are unable to farm means there are fewer funds available, which may explain the gangs turning to kidnapping.

Twice in one week, gangs of motorcycle-riding armed men, operating from forests in two different places in the north of the country, kidnapped hundreds of people.

First on Wednesday we got news from a remote town in Borno state in the north-east that suspected militant Islamists had seized women and children from a displaced persons camp who were searching for firewood.

It took several days for the news to emerge because the local mobile phone masts had been destroyed.

Then the following day, more than 280 children, aged between eight and 15, and some teachers, were taken away by gunmen from a school hundreds of miles away in the north-western state of Kaduna into a nearby forest.

There are reports locally that this attack was carried out by militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru group.

In recent months, there had been a lull in this type of mass kidnapping that had plagued Nigeria since the notorious abduction of nearly 300 girls from a school in Chibok in April 2014 which captured international headlines.

But now, it's déjà vu as the 10th anniversary of that tragedy looms.

The mass abduction in Kaduna is the biggest from a school since 2021.

So why is there a resurgence of this kidnapping that is endangering the lives of the most vulnerable Nigerians?

It is hard to discern a pattern from the coincidental timing of two apparently unconnected incidents, but it is a reminder that the threat has not gone away.

The fact that they happened just days before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan may be significant.

Those who have been kidnapped and freed in the past have talked about being forced to do cooking and other menial jobs in the forest camps.

But in general, kidnap-for-ransom in Nigeria is a low-risk, high-reward business. Those abducted are usually freed after money is handed over, and the perpetrators are rarely arrested.

The Northcentral saw higher ransom amounts demanded, notably in Nasarawa, where targeted abductions yielded maximum ransom with minimal resistance.

The South-South’s low ransom payments may indicate efficient police intervention or victim silence. The past year showed a higher likelihood of being kidnapped in Kaduna, Niger or Zamfara, the three states recording the highest per capita abduction rates and deaths during kidnap attempts.

Civilians bore the brunt of kidnap attempts around the country, with 430 casualties, while security agents and kidnappers accounted for 19 and 121 deaths, respectively.

This is despite the fact that paying a ransom to free someone has been made illegal.

Likewise, the shrinking of the Lake Chad basin and the spreading of the Sahara Desert southward has led to the disappearance of arable farmland and a scarcity of water.

"These pressures only add to the woes of many, especially in the north. This pushes people to seek alternative means of income. Unfortunately, kidnapping for ransom is one," Linder says.

The gangs are aided by the fact that Nigeria's borders are porous and insecure. Islamist violence in the wider region has added to the insecurity.

The vast forest reserves in the border regions have been turned into operational bases for the criminals.

"Nigeria needs to work with its neighbours," says Bulama Bukarti, a senior conflict analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

"Without transnational co-operation especially with Niger, Cameroon, Chad, including in the north-western part of Nigeria's border, these incidents will continue to repeat themselves."