A study of reported cases of Kidnap-for-ransom in the media reveals that the crime has become perhaps the biggest security threat in Nigeria.
Tears dropped down the cheeks of Catherine Ukpekpi as she narrated her family’s ordeal. It was April and her husband, Ben, the leader of the in Cross River State, had been kidnapped four weeks earlier. It was the second time in 16 months that he had been kidnapped.
Mr Ukpekpi told PREMIUM TIMES that the kidnappers occasionally allowed his family to speak with him to show he is not dead. “They walked from Apete to around Iseyin. But they were only walking at night because of their weapons. My brother couldn’t distinguish whether they were Hausas or Fulanis but the workers that saw them recognised them and my parents actually saw them when they went to give them the money,” he said.
Many cases are not reported to the police or by the media. Security agencies, such as the police and the Department of State Security tasked with the primary responsibility of investigating and tackling kidnapping, also do not always record incidents of kidnapping. When they do, they are reluctant to share them with the media.
The inability of security agencies to keep track is a pointer to the extraordinary volume of the scourge.
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