Kidnapping is the unlawful detention of a person through the use of force, threat, fraud, or enticement.

Nigeria today has one of the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases. Kidnapping has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria.

It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country. This act is either targeted at individuals or groups. Students kidnapping has become the most rampant.

Customarily, the prime targets of kidnapping for pay-off are those considered wealthy enough to exchange fees for freedom.

Thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped for ransom and other exploitative purposes over the years.

Kidnapping has increased in spite of measures established against it by the Nigerian government.

The Nigerian Police’s Anti-Kidnapping squad introduced in 2000 has aimed to stem the jeopardy in the country. But this has been ineffective, mainly  due to lack of manpower and poor logistics.

In my view, these efforts have also failed because of weak sanctioning and obviation mechanism. Kidnapping thrives in an environment that condones crime where criminal opportunism and impunity prevail over deterrence.

The kidnapping business in Nigeria has been mostly perpetrated by criminal gangs and violent groups pursuing political agendas and ritual killers.

The exploit of a kidnapping kingpin, Chukwudi Dumce Onuamadike popularly known as Evans, arrested in Lagos few years ago and sentenced to death after awaiting trial for 3 years.

Organized violent groups such as militants and mutineer are also involved in kidnap-for-ransom in Nigeria. Current information have been traced back to the set of the Niger Delta Militant that resulted to solo and group abduction as means of generating funds for private use and the cause of a particular group.

Also, Boko Haram, insurgents have used the proceeds of kidnapping to keep their insurgency buoyant. The insurgent involve in group kidnapping to generate money for funding their activities.

Similarly, they get their recruits from theses kidnapped victims. An example is the abduction of 276 students of the Chibok all girls boarding school in Chibok, Maiduguri.

Currently in Nigeria, kidnapping is now persistent, everywhere, the Fulani herdsmen have also contributed to the development of this menace, and also organized local and transnational criminal syndicate.

This problem should not have risen to this level; kidnappers persist because the benefits of their crimes exceed the costs.

So, the best solution is to raise the cost by imposing harsher penalties to the assailants of this crime. The present penalty for kidnapping ranges from 1 to 20 years imprisonment for extreme cases involving murder.

Additionally, severe measures such as life imprisonment or death penalty should not be completely out of place in dealing with the kidnapping jeopardy.

After all, this crime of kidnapping is an overwhelming threat that requires maximum deterrence.