The latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigerians paid the staggering sum of ₦2.23tn as ransom to kidnappers in one year, from May 2023 to April 2024.

This is more than the annual budget of four low income states. Of the households that experienced kidnapping, the NBS report stated that 80.5 reported it to the police.

According to the NBS’s latest Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report published on Tuesday, 65 per cent of households affected by kidnapping paid ransoms for the release of their loved ones.

According to the report, the average amount paid as ransom was ₦2,670,693, with an estimated total ransom of ₦2,231,772,563,507 paid within the period.

It said kidnapping incidence was estimated at 2,235,954 nationally with results showing that rural areas with 1,668,104 cases recorded more kidnappings than urban areas  with 567,850.

“Further analysis by zones revealed that North-West had the highest cases (1,420,307), followed by North-Central (317,837), while the least was recorded in South-East (110,432),” the report said.

“The South-South zone had the highest reporting rate at 100 percent, followed by North-Central at 89.6 percent, while North-West was least reported at 73.9 percent,” the report noted. “Disaggregated by place of residence, urban areas recorded 87.1 percent compared to 77.3 percent in rural areas.”

A further analysis of the report showed that some of the abducted persons were killed, while others were released.

It showed that out of the reported cases of kidnapping, 82.1 percent  were released,12.8 percent were  killed and 3.3 percent were still in captivity.

The study indicated that “About 91 percent of kidnapping incidents were done for ransom in the form of money, goods, or other benefits.

“Also, 2.4 percent of cases were attributed to political, criminal, or terrorist objectives, while 2.1 percent were linked to personal or family disputes. Custody disputes accounted for 0.5 percent of cases”.

The NBS survey showed that North-West region had the highest cases of crime. There were 14.4 million reported cases in the region. This was followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million.

However, the South-East region recorded the lowest number of reported crimes. It had 6.18 million incidents in the period under review.