{"id":137660,"date":"2019-05-20T22:47:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/what-nigeria-must-do-to-deal-with-its-ransom-driven-kidnapping-crisis-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2019-05-20T22:47:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:47:37","slug":"what-nigeria-must-do-to-deal-with-its-ransom-driven-kidnapping-crisis-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/what-nigeria-must-do-to-deal-with-its-ransom-driven-kidnapping-crisis-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"What Nigeria must do to deal with its ransom-driven kidnapping crisis | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Nigeria must do to deal with its ransom-driven kidnapping crisis<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Nigerians living in Spain rally against Boko Haram insurgents who abducted over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, northeast of the country. <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frequent acts of violent crime have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria\u2019s national security. These include instances of militancy, insurgency and banditry. Banditry includes cattle rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom. <\/p>\n

Kidnapping has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria. It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country. <\/p>\n

Kidnapping can be targeted at individuals or at groups. School children have been kidnapped in groups in various parts of Nigeria. Usually, the prime targets of kidnapping for ransom are those considered to be wealthy enough to pay a fee in exchange for being freed. <\/p>\n

Kidnapping is the unlawful detention of a person through the use of force, threats, fraud or enticement. The purpose is an illicit gain, economic or material, in exchange for liberation. It may also be used to pressure someone into doing something \u2013 or not doing something.<\/p>\n

Nigeria has one of the world\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped for ransom and other purposes over the years. Kidnapping has prevailed in spite of measures put in place by the government. The Nigerian police\u2019s anti-kidnapping squad, introduced in the 2000s, has endeavoured to stem the menace. But this been to no avail, mainly due to a lack of manpower and poor logistics. <\/p>\n

In my view these efforts have also failed because of weak sanctioning and deterrence mechanisms. Kidnapping thrives in an environment that condones crime; where criminal opportunism and impunity prevail over and above deterrence. <\/p>\n

This obviously calls for an urgent review of Nigeria\u2019s current anti-kidnapping approach to make it more effective.<\/p>\n

Opportunistic and organised bandits<\/h2>\n

Even prior to the advent of colonialism there were recorded cases of kidnap for rape, ritual or for other purposes in various parts of Nigeria. But kidnapping today is done primarily for ransom \u2013 either money or its material equivalent to be paid for someone\u2019s release. 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.<\/p>\n

Each victim has a so-called \u201ckidnap ransom value\u201d which makes them an attractive target. This value is determined by a number of factors. These include the victim\u2019s socio-economic or political status, family or corporate premium on the victim, the type of kidnappers involved, as well as the dynamics of ransom negotiation. <\/p>\n

The kidnapping business in Nigeria has been mostly perpetrated by criminal gangs and violent groups pursuing political agendas. Bandits have often taken to kidnapping for ransom to make money. The escapades of the famous kidnap kingpin, Evans, speak volumes of this pattern of kidnapping. Evans was a multimillionaire kidnapper who was arrested in Lagos a few years ago. He is currently is detention awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Organised violent groups such as militants and insurgents have also been involved in kidnap for ransom in Nigeria. Current trends have been linked back to the example set by Niger Delta militants who resorted to solo and group abductions as a means of generating funds both for private use and for the cause of a particular group. <\/p>\n

Similarly, Boko Haram insurgents have used the proceeds of kidnapping to keep their insurgency afloat. The insurgents engage in single or group kidnapping as a means of generating money to fund their activities. Huge sums are often paid as ransom by the victims\u2019 families and associates to secure their release.<\/p>\n

In addition to militants and insurgents, organised local and transnational criminal syndicates have been involved. This is happening to apocalyptic proportions in North West Nigeria where rural bandits engage regularly in kidnapping in the states of Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto.<\/p>\n

The cost<\/h2>\n

Kidnapping has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives and huge sums of money in Nigeria. Many of the victims of the crime have been killed in the course of their abduction, custody or release. Many more have been injured. This is in addition to huge amounts of money lost to ransom takers. <\/p>\n

For the victims and their families and friends, the consequences are even more frightful. <\/p>\n

Nigeria should never have got here. Kidnappers persist because the benefits of their crimes exceed the costs. So the obvious solution is to raise the costs by imposing harsher, surer penalties. The present penalty for kidnapping ranges from one to 20 years in prison, with the possibility of life imprisonment for extreme cases involving, for instance, murder. <\/p>\n

Stricter measures, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty, may not be completely out of place in dealing with the kidnapping menace. After all, the crime of kidnapping is a maximum threat that requires an equally maximum deterrence.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Chukwuma Al Okoli receives funding from: Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Nigeria and Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Nigeria must do to deal with its ransom-driven kidnapping crisis: Nigerians living in Spain rally against Boko Haram insurgents who abducted over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, northeast of the country. Frequent acts of violent crime have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria\u2019s national security. These include instances of militancy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[8890,6240,2348,6727,2211,236,34729],"class_list":{"0":"post-137660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-conversation","8":"tag-crisis","9":"tag-deal","10":"tag-kidnapping","11":"tag-must","12":"tag-nigeria","13":"tag-ransomdriven","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}