Kidnapping business in Nigeria has been mostly perpetrated by criminal gangs and violent groups, mostly pursuing political agenda. The underlying logic of the kidnapping enterprise is that the victim is worth a ransom value and they or their proxy have the capacity to pay. It’s sometimes, the government that waters the garden of the crime, by paying the ransom. What a recipe for disaster! Whenever there’s abduction of students, the government gets several hundred millions out of its account and negotiates a deal with the abductors, then the officials of the state take their shares. They (state officials) would be in two advantageous positions – the Nigerians would be in celebration with them and establish a diplomatic link with the abductors. Do you think anyone who runs a business like this would let it collapse? Negative.
Nigeria has the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases. Other countries high up on the list included Venezuela, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. This, by and large, happens owing the involvement of organized violent groups such as militants, bandits and Boko Haram insurgents who use kidnapping to make their insurgency stay afloat. The insurgents engage in single or group kidnapping as a means of generating money to fund their activities.
Nothing changes if some state officials are in the business and the government does not provide stricter measures, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty for the offenders. Chukwudi Dumee Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans, for instance, is a Nigerian alleged kidnapper who is a native of Nnewi, Anambra state. He is sometimes referred to as “The Billionaire Kidnapper” because the Nigeria Police Force believe he is one of the richest criminals in the kidnapping business in Nigeria. In some of his operations, he made up to $1 million. Evans has been on trial since 2017 on 52 charges of multiple murders, armed robberies, kidnappings, unlawful possession of firearms, unlawful possession of ammunition, conspiracy, among other charges. You can’t imagine how on earth, with all these terrible mysterious happenings, the Senate moves to regulate bleaching creams.
Bashir Shuaibu Jammaje
