Commenting on alarming NBS Survey on Payment of Ransom
Commenting on alarming NBS Survey on Payment of Ransom
The recent survey by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, that kidnapped victims in Nigeria paid $2.2 billion as ransom to secure release from their abductors between May 2023 and April 2024 is alarming. This amount translates to N2.23 trillion in local currency. This sum is not only staggering but also incentivising to criminals.
This NBS report on Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey also recorded some disturbing trends in the area of geo-political spread, urban-rural involvement, lack of public trust in the police and the likelihood of the situation remaining unchanged, if not worse, in the months and years ahead.
According to the NBS, an estimated 51,887,032 crime incidents were experienced by households nationwide within the period. Of this number, 65.0 per cent of households paid ransom on the average of ₦2,670,693.
Expectedly, of the 51,887,032 crime incidents reported nationwide in the survey, North-West topped the chart with 14,402,254, North-Central with 8,771,400, and South-East with 6,176,03.
Surprisingly, however, rural areas surpassed urban areas in crime incidents. 26,526,069 crime incidents were recorded in the rural area as against 25,360,963 cases in urban areas.
The survey report gets scarier when the ransom payment by each of the six geo-political zones are considered. Of the total N2.23 trillion, North West paid N1.17 trillion, followed by the North Central with N446.74 billion, South West with N248.78, North East with N166.14 billion, South south with 90.05 billion and South East with N85.44 billion. Between urban and rural Nigeria, the latter paid N1.81trillion while the former paid 794.46 billion.
Damaging to the image of the police as the foremost law enforcement agency closer to the people is the revelation that victims of robbery attack do not trust police to do proper, if any investigation. In the survey, 4,142,174 households experienced home robbery. But less than half, which is 36.3 percent of the households who were victims of home robbery reported their experience to the police.
According to NBS, the most common reasons for not reporting crimes include a lack of confidence in law enforcement and the belief that police intervention would not result in meaningful action. Indeed, this poor public perception of the police by households was better dramatised in the survey by the poor figures on police response to reports by individual victims of phone theft.
The survey said that at the individual level, 21.4 percent of Nigerians reported being victims of crime, and the most common crime was phone theft for which 13.8 per cent was scored in the survey. Yet of 90 percent of the victims of phone thefts reported to the police, only 50 per cent of the victims expressed satisfaction with police responses.
According to the NBS, the findings provide crucial insights for security agencies, stakeholders, and policymakers to improve public safety and align with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Clearly, this eye-opening report shows that the war against insecurity in the country is far from being won. In addition to the prevailing hardship in the country following the removal of subsidy on petrol and the floating of the Naira against the dollar, the worsened insecurity has completely left Nigerians at the mercy of the elements.
The multiplier effect of this scenario on insecurity as painted by this survey begins to be appreciated when the social and economic context is considered: The free movement of goods and services is impeded; the fear and anxiety which impacts the psyche of Nigerians; the likely resort to self-help on security matters in the absence of trust of security agencies and general lack of faith in the system.
We know that the government and the security agencies have been trying to get the upper hand in the fight against insecurity but they need to do more. The security and welfare of the citizenry is the constitutional mandate of the government. This NBS survey is damning enough and it should be taken seriously.
Source: TheWill
