History of Kidnapping in Nigeria

Kidnapping is a historical phenomenon in many parts of Nigeria. Such sinister act can be traced from the remotest times of the pre-colonial periods to the contemporary times in the life of most Nigerian communities. While the pre-colonial period witnessed the use of kidnapping as a means of acquiring humans for certain needs of persons and people—for instance, for sacrifice and slaves—the colonial era saw the concerted efforts by colonialists towards the suppression and extinguishing of such ‘needs’, thus both human sacrifice and slavery/slave trade were outlawed. This situation forced human sacrifice and slave trade underground. In other words, while such acts diminished in public view and reckoning (at least to a reasonable extent), they simultaneously thrived clandestinely, keeping their occurrence away from public consciousness, and became more prevalent due to the individualism cultivated by colonialism. The very attempts by the colonialists to eradicate such societal vices—such as slavery and human sacrifice—may well have fed its continued prevalence, particularly clandestinely. Thus, with such colonial onslaught, communities and individuals sought supernatural protection from such colonial incursions. Such ‘supernatural protections’ may well have involved ritual abduction to waste human lives through sacrifices. In contradistinction to what was observed in the pre-colonial and colonial stages, the later post-colonial stage witnessed an exponential increase in kidnapping activities due to a complete system breakdown—socially, economically, politically and morally. What then emerged was a new twist to the kidnap trend—for ransom (pecuniary gains), an element which was hitherto largely non-existent in the Nigerian society. With such dramatic changes in the fortunes of the country in respect of kidnapping, Nigeria became a world-acclaimed center for such burgeoning clandestine business. This situation was, however, to change further—for the worse—with the emergence of organized criminal groups and terrorists, such as Boko Haram, the bandits, and then the Fulani herdsmen. Together, these groups took the issue of kidnapping in Nigeria to another level, approach and height—such of which were never known in the country. Accordingly, this chapter explores the evolution of kidnapping in Nigeria, and its changing dynamics across space (from the North to the South, and the East to the West) and time (from pre-colonial era to post-colonial eras).