Afflicted by decades of terrorism and armed robbery, banditry and its twin, kidnapping, are spreading fast across the country, turning Nigerians into nervous wrecks. Apart from the North-West, the Federal Capital Territory has become a hot spot of kidnapping. Ekiti State and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the South-West are the latest scenes of this crime. To defeat it, Nigeria needs to swiftly overhaul its security structure.

Two separate kidnapping incidents are raising tensions in Ekiti. On Monday, sophisticatedly-armed kidnappers intercepted three monarchs who were returning from a security meeting in Kogi State, at Oke-Ako. They shot dead two – Olatunde Olusola of Imojo and Babatunde Ogunsakin of Esun-Ekiti. Adebayo Fatoba of Ara-Ekiti, the third monarch in the group, fled into the bush. Reports stated that the felons exploited the bad roads in the area to achieve their nefarious aim.

The same day, bandits kidnapped five pupils and four teachers of the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools in Emure-Ekiti. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of N100 million to free their victims. The police said they have arrested five suspects. Expressing grief, President Bola Tinubu has ordered the arrest of the perpetrators. This is not different from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, after deadly kidnapping incidents.

At the weekend, kidnapping reared its head again on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Ogere. The victims were the Lagos State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Philip Aivoji and party officials on their way home from Ibadan, Oyo State. They spent four days in the kidnappers’ den. In Lagos, media reports say kidnappers are spreading their tentacles, entering houses to abduct helpless citizens.

Early this year, kidnapping became topical in the FCT when bandits abducted about 19 persons from an estate in Bwari. They later killed Nabeeha al-Kadriyar, a 400-level undergraduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and Folashade Ariyo, 13, and two other persons, because of the delay to pay ransom. After the killings, the bandits increased the ransom to N700 million. On January 18, police rescued Segun Akinyemi, who was abducted at the entrance to his Abuja home, in Kaduna State.

Instead of reducing, there is an upsurge of crime in Nigeria under Tinubu. The Civil Society Joint Action Group said in Tinubu’s first eight months in office, 2,423 citizens were violently killed and 1,872 persons abducted. This is an epidemic. Nigeria lost 24,816 citizens between 2019 and 2023 under Buhari; 15,597 were kidnapped.

Apart from kidnapping, bandits, gunmen, Fulani herdsmen and Islamic terrorists are on the rampage in several parts of Nigeria. During the Christmas festivities, gunmen massacred nearly 200 residents in three local government areas of Plateau State. One month after, gunmen returned to Mangu LGA and slaughtered another 30.

The Islamists are beheading farmers in Borno State, where, in April 2014, they abducted 276 schoolgirls at the secondary school in Chibok. In the South-East, the agitation for Biafra independence has turned so violent that citizens are forced to obey a Monday sit-at-home order by non-state actors.

Criminality is gaining ground because Nigeria is a failing state. Years of military rule have significantly weakened its policing system. This is aggravated by its single police system. With 370,000 officers, most of who are deployed illegally to protect VIPs, the police are seriously shorthanded. The criminals are happy to feast on this.

To make amends, Tinubu must be different from his predecessors. Immediately, he should collaborate with the governors and parliament to invoke the ‘doctrine of necessity’ to establish state police. That is the sensible way forward. State governments should not wait for criminals to run amok before establishing their own police forces.

The police should introduce technology for effective detection and prevention; the Federal Government must constantly mop up arms from criminals.

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