KIDNAPPING ECONOMY AND INCREASING INSECURITY: RETHINKING NIGERIA SECURITY EFFECTIVENESS
Authors:
Oludele Ajiboye Simeon
Abstract:
Kidnapping for monetary gain has become a lucrative business and to some extent, turn into a family business in which the father and son engage in the business of kidnapping for ransom. The act of the business knows no bound as the poor and rich have fallen victims in the hands of bandits and gunmen invading the high ways, villages, communities, schools, religious houses etc. kidnapping people in exchange for money. Friends and family members have paid a heavy ransom in millions of naira for their loved ones kidnapped. What is surprising is the rate at which people are being kidnapped without any arrest of the perpetrators by the law enforcement agents and the effrontery of kidnappers to continue with their heinous act in which some of them even boast that nobody can arrest them. It is apparent that they have sponsors and money to buy high calibre firearms for their operations. These criminals have been emboldened to attack military bases, State Governor’s convoys, Traditional Rulers’ houses, Politicians etc, and have killed several people in the process, thus causing insecurity in the country. Zamfara State Governor has cried out that over 30,000 bandits are operating in the state as bandits and kidnappers turned Sokoto/Gusau road to the highway of death; while Kaduna State is the 3rd most rated kidnap case in Nigeria with four schools attacked and students kidnapped within six months. The level of insecurity in the country makes Nigerians ask if there is any security apparatus that can stop the activities of the bandits and kidnappers in the country.