By Chukwuma Okoli & Ndu Nwokolo
“…we have paid the ransom, yet they are still keeping many of the abductees; some have even died in their custody” – relative of an abductee in Kaura Namoda LGA, Zamfara State.
At least 3,612 persons were kidnapped in different parts of Nigeria between January and June 2026. The North West accounted for 55 per cent of the entire number of kidnap victims. While the Criminal Code Act, 2004, prescribed a prison term of ten years for anyone found guilty of kidnapping, as part of attempts to discourage kidnapping, the Nigerian state has amended the law such that kidnapping now attracts strict punishment in Nigeria. Just recently, the Supreme Court upheld a death by hanging sentence passed on Chelynor Halim – a convicted Delta-based kidnapper.
The motivations for kidnapping in Nigeria have been identified to include kidnapping for ransom (K4R), kidnapping for vengeance, kidnapping for rituals, kidnapping for sexual exploitation, kidnapping for recruitment into a criminal network, politically motivated kidnapping, business-oriented kidnapping, and kidnapping for the liberation struggle (Ogunnubi & Idowu, 2024). Of all these, kidnapping for ransom has been identified as the key driver of kidnapping in Nigeria. Although Nigeria has made a law prohibiting payment of ransom to kidnappers, bandits, and other criminal groups involved in kidnapping continue to demand and obtain ransom from kidnap victims and their relations. Between June 2024 and July 2025, a total of ₦2.57 billion was estimated to have been paid as ransom to kidnappers. While ransom taking remains a key motivating factor for kidnapping, the recent trend of kidnapping in Northwest Nigeria suggests that the incentives for kidnapping by bandits are changing, and so are their strategies. This Nextier Policy report reveals the mutation in the incentives and strategies of kidnappers in North West Nigeria.
Understanding Contemporary Kidnapping in Northwest Nigeria
The history of kidnapping in Nigeria has been documented by various writers. Yet, contemporary kidnapping in Northwest Nigeria has a peculiar trend which this brief highlights. Oral sources reveal that the current kidnapping in Northwest Nigeria is carried out mainly by bandit groups who were involved in cattle rustling in the region. But over time, as cattle rustling became less lucrativeand the onslaught on bandits involved in cattle rustling made it riskier, the bandits resorted to kidnapping for ransom, which proved more lucrative. Through kidnapping, bandits are able to raise a large amount of cash from ransom, facilitate forced marriages to satisfy their sexual urge and procreate, recruit young people as members, levy taxes on communities and commandeer community farms. Two factors explain the trend in contemporary kidnapping in the Northwest. First, the structure of the Fulani caste systemaccounts for the origin of the kidnapping gang in Northwest Nigeria. The Fulani ethnic group maintains a caste system with a hierarchy of wealth and power. At the top of the strata are the wealthy and powerful elites who own the cattle. At the bottom of the strata are the peasants who do not own cattle but make a living from cattle rearing. This system has existed for generations. The peasants not only suffer abject poverty, but it is impossible to change their socio-economic status – they and their generation remain cattle rearers for the elites. It is these peasants who commenced cattle rustling as armed gangs. Some oral accounts allege that some peasants commenced cattle rustling out of frustration with their abject poverty. Others joined cattle rustling following the reduction in grazing reserves, which reduced economic opportunities in cattle rearing. In a seminal paper, Rufa’Irevealed that the first armed bandits involved in cattle rustling in Zamfara, Northwest Nigeria – referred to as kungiyarbarayin shanu (i.e., cattle rustlers association) – were of the Fulani ethnic group. It is these bandits that eventually transitioned into armed kidnappers terrorising Northwest Nigeria.
The current group of kidnappers are mainly teenagers and young people in their early twenties. These are children of cattle rustlers and early kidnappers, many of whom have been captured and killed by the vigilantes and state security forces(Personal Communication). The second factor sustaining kidnapping is the topography of the Northwest, with many forests and caves that are not easily accessible. The bandits live and operate from those forests and caves which the military cannot easily access. In fact, in some communities like Kaura Namoda in Zamfara state, the topography is so bad that some locations cannot be accessed even on motorbikes during the rainy season. The bandits themselves would usually park their operational motorbikes and trek for long distances to their havens (Personal Communication). This difficult topography, coupled with long years of governance deficit, expressed in the complete absence of road infrastructure, continues to enable the kidnappers to operate.
Mutation in the incentives of kidnappers: From demand for ransom to rights of passage
“The kidnappers have so much money now, their problem is access to the market” – Key Informant.
Existing scholarship on kidnapping in Nigeria frames ransom as the primary incentive of kidnappers. This explains the wide use of the term ‘Kidnapping for Ransom’ when referring to kidnappers. While this is true, the recent trend in kidnapping in Northwest Nigeria shows that kidnappers’ incentives are changing. Bandits who carry out these kidnappings are not just demanding ransom, they are demanding the exchange of their members captured and detained by the government, as well as the right of passage to the markets. Our respondent explained that bandits have made so much money from ransom payments and commandeering community farms. In fact, in some communities, the largest farms and herds are owned by bandits involved in kidnapping (Personal Communication). But having money is not enough; spending it matters. One of the major problems kidnappers face now is how to access the market to buy the supplies they need, including fuel for their operational bikes, recharge cards for communication, and other basic necessities. It is becoming more difficult for the bandits to sustain their activities because of difficulties in accessing the market to buy their supplies. Two factors explain this difficulty in accessing the market. First, the bandits are known by community members who have engaged vigilantes, themselves ex-bandits, to combat them. So, once the bandits or their couriers (i.e. those who buy supplies for the bandits from the market) are sighted in the market, community members alert the vigilantes, who capture and kill them. Secondly, the surveillance and onslaught of the security agencies against the kidnappers is also restricting the kidnappers’ access to the market.
As part of efforts to surmount the challenges of market access, the bandits now kidnap, not just for ransom, but as a strategy of getting captives who would be held in custody to enable bandits to negotiate rights of passage to the local markets. Therefore, kidnapping in Nigeria has added kidnapping for Right of Passage (K4RP) to its list of types of kidnapping. Our respondent explained that in some communities in Kaura Namoda LGA of Zamfara State, the bandits have kidnapped a lot of people, ransom has been paid, but they are still keeping people. They keep the abductees and inform the community members that if they expose the bandits/their couriers to security agencies on their way to market, then those abductees will be killed. The respondent added that:
Just last week, they kidnapped the wife of our relatives. They have communicated to us to pay 50million as ransom for the woman to be released, or to bring the baby of the woman if we don’t have 50million. But we are not sure they will release the woman if we pay the ransom; they may also take her husband into custody as part of their strategy to negotiate rights of passage to markets.
The change in the bandits’ strategies and demands signals two possibilities. First is that the kinetic military operations,together with the efforts of the community vigilantes, are inflicting damage on the bandits. As a result, the bandits have become desperate for supplies to maintain their operations. A second possibility could be that the bandits, through ransom collection, have built enormous wealth and military capabilities, which embolden them to negotiate rights on passage to the markets.
Affected Communities and Coping Strategies
Bandits operating in North West Nigeria operate within communities over which they exercise control. Each banditgroup maintains control over defined territories and does not operate in the territories controlled by other bandit groups. In some communities in Kaura Namoda LGA of Zamfara State, the bandits ransack houses at night and abduct people. Community members only stay in their houses during the daytime, but at night everyone leaves their homes for a central location, such as public schools or the Emir’s palace, where many gather to spend the night. Such central places provide a sense of safety to community members due to occasional patrols by the military and vigilantes. More so, the gathering of many persons in one location also gives a sense of safety to the community members who believe that it would be more difficult for the bandits to attack a location with a large number of people. After spending the night at the central place, community members return home in the morning to resume their daily activities. According to our respondent, this strategy has proven effective, as there has been no evidence of kidnappings of people who spend the night at such central places. However, people who insist on spending the night intheir homes have experienced kidnapping. Our respondent reported that: “…my in-law was kidnapped because she refused to join others to spend the night in a central location. She preferred to stay back in the house at night because she felt tired…that night, they came to the house and kidnapped her.”
Despite efforts by the Nigerian government to combat the kidnapping through legislation prescribing strict punishments as well as military operations by the security agencies, the menace of kidnapping continues to haunt Nigeria. What is more, the demands and strategies of the bandits started withkidnapping for ransom and now include kidnapping for negotiating rights of passage. This change in strategies and demands suggests two possibilities. The military and community vigilantes may have inflicted so much harm on the bandits, who have become desperate for supplies to sustain their operations. Conversely, the bandits may have built so much wealth and capabilities over the years and have become emboldened to demand rights of passage to access markets.
Recommendations:
- Intensify kinetic action against the bandits: The Nigerian security agencies, in collaboration with community vigilantes, should sustain the kinetic onslaught against bandits involved in kidnapping. This will continue to reduce the membership, territorial control and combat capabilities of the kidnappers.
- Address governance deficit: There is a need to address governance deficits, particularly the infrastructural challenges in local communities. Infrastructural development, such as access roads in local communities, will further enable security agencies and local vigilantes to reach kidnappers’ hideouts.
- Support local community institutions: traditional institutions across communities should be capacitated to combat bandits by strengthening local vigilantes forintelligence gathering and coordination with state security agencies.
- Maintain the government’s stance of not negotiating with Bandits: the government’s refusal to negotiate with kidnappers should be sustained. Kidnappers who have been captured and are still under detention should be properly prosecuted and made to face the wrath of the law.
- Restrict kidnappers’ access to markets: government at all levels should collaborate with community members to restrict kidnappers’ access to markets. Restricting kidnappers’ access to the market will ensure that kidnappers’ sources of supplies are cut off and their operational capabilities undermined.
(Dr. Chukwuma Okoli is a visiting Lead, Research and Policy at Nextier and a Lecturer at the Political Science Department at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria; while Dr. Ndu Nwokolo is a Managing Partner at Nextier and a reader (Associate Professor) at the Institute for Peace, Security and Development Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria)
