Who wants to be a millionaire? Nigerian youths and the commodification of kidnapping

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo and three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on the initial draft of this article.

Notes

For more on ritual kidnapping, see Nigerian Tribune (2009, p. 13) and Sanyaolu (2008). (All newspapers and magazines cited are those published in Nigeria, except where otherwise stated.)

Though the motive of this form of kidnap might be to liquidate business rivals, several millions of naira are usually received by the perpetrators.

Several individuals and groups have been implicated on collusion with kidnap gangs including businessmen, traditional rulers and even banks, which are said to leak the account details of their wealthy customers to the criminals (Adekoye 2009a).

For more details, see Abati (2009b) and Okocha and Constance (2009).

Expatriates and nationals of developed countries are particularly targeted for huge ransoms. The Nigerian government often pays promptly to secure the release of this set of victims in order to avoid embarrassment from the international community (Akhaine 2009, Orji 2009).

The retired general was kidnapped from his farm in Edo State and taken through the creeks to Bayelsa State in the volatile Niger Delta region.

This estimate is conservative, as some cases are unreported for fear of re-kidnapping.

Some popular hideouts of the kidnappers in Anambra have been identified to include Ogbunike, Nsugbe, Ayamelum, a forest between Nawfia and Enugwu, Abakaliki and Nibo (Anyanwu 2009).