![]() ![]() Since the oil boom of the 1970s, the gap between Nigeria’s extremely poor and the superrich has continued to widen. Poverty and inequality are one explanation for the crisis. Last August, around 136 schoolchildren who were abducted at gunpoint at a school in Tegina, Niger State, were released after their parents paid a ransom and bought motorbikes for the kidnappers. ![]() Relatives of kidnap victims in Nigeria fear the bill will make it difficult to free family members. “Payment of ransom is a policy that cannot be exterminated as state agents that are supposed to implement the law are actively engaging in it.”Īccording to a report by SBM, more than $18.3 million in ransom money was paid to Nigerian kidnappers between 20. The military has also paid ransoms for some of its abducted officers,” Cheta Nwanze, a partner at SB Morgen Intelligence (SBM), a Lagos-based consultancy, wrote to Foreign Policy via email. “Most ransom payments are done with the aid of the police. This month, the managing director of Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Ali-Hassan, was freed after being abducted during the Kaduna train attack, after his family paid an undisclosed amount as ransom (reportedly 100 million naira or $242,000), according to bank sources. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, chairman of the Senate’s judiciary, human rights, and legal committee, told the Senate that making ransom payments punishable with jail time would “discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom in Nigeria, which is fast spreading across the country.” But the largest ransom payments are often arranged by those in public office. Yet, it could end up like so many other laws-such as a recent one barring outgoing calls from 75 million unregistered cellphone lines-that fail on implementation. The Senate’s bill will now be debated in the lower House of Representatives before being sent to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to sign. Armed gangs killed more than 2,600 civilians in 2021, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Abductions for ransom have become increasingly common across the country. The bill also made abducting an individual punishable by death in cases where the victims die.įor more than a decade, militants and armed gangs operating in Nigeria’s northern region have terrorized civilians. Nigeria’s Senate passed a bill on Wednesday imposing jail terms of at least 15 years for anyone paying a ransom to free someone who has been kidnapped. Nigerian Senate Passes Bill Banning Ransoms ![]()
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