A new report by SBM Intelligence titled Grim Reaping has said that Nigerians kidnapped by hoodlums paid N1.048 billion as ransom to kidnappers between July 2023 and June 2024. The report said that kidnappers across the country demanded around N10.99 billion in ransom out of which N1.048 billion was paid by victims representing around 9.5 per cent of the total figure. According to the report Nigeria’s worsening insecurity is driven by economic stagnation, leading more people to resort to kidnapping for survival as the pool of high-net-worth individuals shrinks. It said that kidnappers increasingly target a broader range of people, starting with high ransom demands that are eventually lowered to what families or social organisations can afford. Hence, ransom paid reflects the purchasing power of Nigerians rather than the negotiating skills of the victims’ families.
According to the report, Nigeria’s security challenges have grown increasingly intricate, marked by the resurgence of Boko Haram in the Northeast, the activities of armed gangs in the North-central and Northwest, secessionist violence in the Southeast, and gang-related disturbances in the Southwest. The report further said that amid these diverse threats, kidnapping for ransom has emerged as a pervasive and unifying concern. It also said that between July 2023 and June 2024, our research uncovered that at least 7,568 individuals were abducted in 1,130 incidents across Nigeria. The states of Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina reported the highest numbers of both incidents and victims. Zamfara experienced 132 incidents with 1,639 victims, Kaduna had 113 incidents involving 1,113 victims, and Katsina recorded 119 incidents with 887 victims.
These states also recorded the highest number of civilian deaths. Over the past year, kidnapping has become increasingly lethal, resulting in 1,056 deaths across 1,130 reported incidents. On average, every attempted kidnapping now results in a fatality. The report noted that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest ransom demands in the country, with Lagos and Kaduna closely trailing. An analysis of geopolitical zones reveals that the Southeast leads in both the amount of ransom paid and the rate of successful collections. Furthermore, the report revealed a new form of payment demanded by kidnapper- in-kind payments from victims’ families, which vary by region. In the South, these demands often include food, drinks, and cigarettes, while in the North, motorcycles are frequently requested. According to SBM’s analysis, women are more often targeted for kidnapping than men. While the South has witnessed only a modest increase in kidnapping incidents from 2022 to 2024, the North has seen a sharp escalation. This year alone, the number of incidents in the North has exceeded the combined totals of the previous two years, indicating a rapidly deteriorating and increasingly unmanageable situation.
The worsening state of security in the country is affecting economic activities with agriculture the major culprit. Farmers in many states, especially in the north, have been forced to pay to farm and even harvest their products. In some cases, farmers have been victims of kidnapping and have lost their lives in the process. SBM Intelligence report said that over 1, 356 farmers have been kidnapped across the country from 2020 while another similar report noted that farmers pay up to N100,000 to kidnappers as permission to farm in the Northern part of the country.
This has exacerbated the food crisis with food inflation reaching 40% this year- the highest in almost three decades.
