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- Parents keep vigil as classrooms turn hunting grounds for terrorists
- How citizens pay for safety in blood, money, alcohol, powerbanks, food items
A hush falls over every memory of Hanifa Abubakar, beyond December 2, 2021. The five-year-old stays frozen in time, inside the heart of her loved ones.
Born April 5, 2016, her story begins and ends where her small feet once pattered on the corridors of Noble Kids Academy (NKA), Kwanar Dakata, in Nassarawa Local Government Area (LGA) of Kano State.
Her parents, Abdulsalam and Murjanatu Abubakar, believed that by enrolling her at NKA, they had entrusted her to safety: a classroom she loved, in a school that sheltered her from the world’s ugliness. But ugliness had a key to her classroom, they would find.
On December 2, 2021, Hanifa was abducted outside the Islamic School she attended at Kwanar Dakata, by someone she trusted implicitly: Abdulmalik Tanko, her school proprietor.
Tanko took her to his house at Tudun Murtala and told his wife that she was the daughter of one of his teachers who had traveled. Two days later, he contacted Hanifa’s family, demanding a N6 million ransom. The Abubakars barely scraped N100,000 together. Then, they prayed, hoping that their child’s abductor returned her.
To guarantee her safe return, they reported to the police and the latter deployed Operation Puff Adder, while the Department of State Services (DSS) opened a parallel trail.
For two weeks, Tanko confined Hanifa in his family house, while ransom calls passed between him and her grieving parents.
On December 18, 2021, having realised that Hanifa recognised him, Tanko resolved to kill her.
After he finished drinking tea around 11 pm, he put the remainder in an empty container of Bobo Yoghurt (a yoghurt-based milk drink for children), and poured rat poison inside the tea.
Afterward, he picked her up and told her that he was taking her back to her family house. On their way, he gave Hanifa the drink and she drank it. Then, Tanko told her that he had to pick up something from his school’s branch at Kwanar ‘Yan Gana, also in Nassarawa, Kano.
By the time, they entered the school, Hanifa had died. Tanko deposited her corpse in a sack, and called one Hashim Isyaku, with whom he buried her in a shallow grave within the school premises.
Days later, he returned to her parents to offer sympathy, wearing the mask of a grieving volunteer and the deceased’s favourite school “uncle.”
The Abubakars reported to the police and the latter deployed Operation Puff Adder, while the Department of State Services (DSS) opened a parallel trail. The chase circled Kano’s Nassarawa district until it led to Tanko. As the mask fell, Tanko confessed.
He killed her because she recognised him; he used N71,000 from the ransom to pay teachers in the other branch of his school and so doing avert a “financial crisis.”
The law surprisingly moved swiftly. Within six months, the High Court pronounced judgment: Tanko and his accomplice, Isyaku, were sentenced to death on July 28, 2022. The third conspirator, Fatima Musa, was jailed for two years.
Read Also: Fresh posers as 315 confirmed abducted from Niger school
The deceased’s father, Abubakar, commended the court for the judgment, saying that, he was happy his daughter, Hanifa, “gotten justice.”
At least the Abubakars had closure. Unlike Umar Suleiman.
Nine years ago, his little girl vanished without a trace in Kuje, Abuja. Her name is Khadija Suleiman. She was two years old.
It happened on November 19, 2016, while Khadija followed seven-year-old Usman to buy milk cake. As they wandered through the neighbourhood, a woman approached them, flashing biscuits and drinks to earn their trust. As the little ones focused on the treats, the woman nudged Usman aside and disappeared with Khadija into the underbelly of the city.
To date, there is no trace of Khadija. Her abductor hasn’t been arrested. Yet, the longing for her persists in her father’s heart.
Hanifa and Khadija embody two different tragedies yet share the same national story. One crime unfolded in the trusted precincts of her school, the other on a street where no one anticipated a predator. While Hanifa’s abduction and subsequent murder reflect the ghastly manifestation of Nigeria’s kidnapping time bomb, Khadija’s case remains one among many unresolved child kidnapping across Nigeria.
Both reflect Nigeria’s swelling pandemic of abductions: a national emergency reflective in the number of victims. Parents bury their children in real time and families vanish into forests to cautiously negotiate with kidnappers. Advocacy networks track statistics and trends as closure rates decline, leaving families to rely on memory, prayer, WhatsApp group appeals, and the hope that someone, somewhere, sees a photograph and calls the right number.
Victims recount episodes often unrelated to banditry or terrorism but deeply rooted in urban predation and systemic failure, leaving parents like Abubakar and Suleiman at their wits end.
Just recently, bandits struck the St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 am, in Papiri, Agwara council area, Niger state, abducting about 303 students and 12 teachers, according to the Bishop of the Catholic Kontagora Diocese, Bulus Yohanna.
The recent incident occurred, on November 19, two days after Fulani-speaking bandits abducted 25 students of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, in Maga, Kebbi State.
The raid that shook Kebbi
Nobody, perhaps, will forget in a hurry, the ill-fated morning of November 17. Just about a few minutes past 4 am, gunfire shattered the dawn as armed men stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS) in Maga town. The assailants, who arrived on motorcyles, scaled the school wall with practiced precision and seized 25 girls in a coordinated sweep.
First stop was the apartment of the Vice Principal (VP) of the school, Hassan Makuku. Speaking to journalists, his widow, Amina, recalled the invasion of her home with the stunned realisation of a woman darting between anguish and healing.
“To Allah we belong, and to Him we shall return,” she said, her invocation worn thin by grief. According to her, she startled awake around 4.00 am, at the creak of the window frame close to their headrest. She nudged her husband awake, alerting him that animals had gained entrance into their apartment.
But as he stirred awake, Hassan and his wife realised that it wasn’t animals but bandits with guns who had forced the door open.
The invaders, speaking Fulani and wearing army camouflage, confronted Hassan, asking if he was the school’s chief security officer. When he confirmed his role, they told him it was his last day.
“They raised their guns to shoot him immediately they got in, but he said, ‘Don’t shoot me, let me get up.’ As he got up, he said, ‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar! La’ilaha’illallah Muhammad Rasulullah.’ He instructed me not to cry, that we should continue praying,” said the widow.
While they prayed, the invaders “drew their guns and shot him at close range,” killing him. Subsequently, they dragged her daughter out, forcing her to lead them to the girls’ hostel. Although Amina’s girl escaped under the pretext of easing herself, the bandits made away with 25 girls from the hostel.
Casualties from the encounter include VP Hassan and a security guard, Aliyu Shehu, who later died from gun shot wounds at the hospital.
There is no gainsaying the fate of the Kebbi and Niger abductions -25 and 315 respectively – fold seamlessly into a nationwide tragedy. In the wake of the incidents, the Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago, has directed all schools in the state to shut down until after the New Year, while schools in affected area will be shut until further notice.
Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris has visited GGCSS, promising swift action, even as security teams comb the area. As rescue efforts persist, at least, two of the girls have reportedly escaped as their captors led them through bush paths. The rest remain wherever the forests conceal them: makeshift camps, tree thickets, and the northern wild.
No ransom demand had been made to affected families in both states at press time. However, in the wake of the girls’ abduction, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu, has directed the troops to rescue the girls immediately.
Describing the incidents as unfortunate, he said he would go to any length through the security agencies to secure their quick release. Kebbi witnessed a similar abduction in 2021, when over 100 students were whisked away. Parents paid ransoms for two years before students were returned in batches, some returned with babies after forced marriages, some with trauma too heavy for their young frames.
Across Nigeria, over 1,500 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since the Chibok tragedy, where 276 girls were abducted by terrorist sect, Boko Haram, in April 2014, to Kaduna where 130 schoolchildren resurfaced after weeks of captivity. This is not to forget the myriad cases, often uncounted, where families negotiated ransoms, borrowed from neighbours, sold farmlands and landed property, or surrendered heirlooms and their last shred of dignity to buy back their children.
The grim picture…
A new report by SBM Intelligence paints a devastating picture of Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom epidemic, revealing how widespread, indiscriminate and increasingly lethal the crime has become. Between July 2023 and June 2024 alone, the country recorded 1,130 kidnapping incidents involving no fewer than 7,568 victims. During that period, abductors demanded at least N10.99 billion in ransom but received only N1.048 billion, a mere 9.5 percent of what they asked for. Analysts say this sharp gap reflects how kidnappers now cast a wider net rather than selectively targeting wealthy individuals. In previous years, high-profile victims such as business magnates, politicians, and other elites were the preferred targets because they guaranteed high payouts. But with worsening economic hardship, a shrinking pool of affluent Nigerians, and growing desperation among armed groups, the crime has become a mass enterprise. Today, students, villagers, market women, commuters, children and the elderly are just as vulnerable as the political class.
Zamfara State recorded the highest number of incidents with 132 cases and 1,639 victims, followed by Kaduna and Katsina with 113 and 119 incidents, and 1,113 and 887 victims, respectively. The northwest remains the epicentre of the crisis, driven by large-scale assaults on rural communities where bandit groups exploit weak security presence to kidnap entire villages or convoys at once, sometimes forcing captives into labour while waiting for negotiations. The northcentral and southeast also witness mass abductions, though often on a smaller scale.
Tragically, kidnapping has also grown deadlier: 1,056 people were killed in the 1,130 incidents recorded, meaning almost one life is lost for every attempted abduction.
Inside a ransom economy…
Findings revealed that kidnapping gangs operating across the country have escalated ransom demands, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) leading with requests totalling N3.13 billion. The highest single demand emerged from Piko community in Bwari, where abductors sought N900 million for 13 residents in May 2024. Another major case was the January abduction of 10 members of the Al-Kadriyar family, during which kidnappers killed two victims to pressure negotiators and raised their demand from N60 million per person to N100 million, totalling N700 million. Although five Abuja cases involved ransom demands of N100 million or more, four occurred in Bwari. The lone exception was a September 2023 abduction in the Abuja Municipal Council, where a kidnapper who initially demanded N100 million settled for N110,000 before his arrest.
Despite the staggering sums demanded in the FCT, kidnappers collected only about five percent—N117.5 million—of the total. The highest confirmed payment was the N55 million crowdfunded by the Al-Kadriyar family after the killing of Nabeeha, contradicting police claims that the victims were rescued. Lagos State followed closely with ransom demands totalling N2.24 billion, though almost all of it stemmed from a single case: the June 2024 abduction of the Fouani family, for whom kidnappers demanded $1.5 million. The only other confirmed ransom request in Lagos was the N20 million demanded after the November 2023 abduction of a government official in Ikorodu.
Kaduna recorded N1.52 billion in ransom demands but confirmed payments of only N32.07 million, though on-the-ground accounts suggest that some payouts were far higher. The mass abduction of 130 pupils in Kuriga contributed N1 billion to the total demand, and eyewitnesses described a large-scale ransom delivery involving SUVs, Hilux trucks, and motorcycles ferrying cash into the forest, evidence that a significant payment was made despite official denials. The highest confirmed payment in the state was N16 million, made in June 2024 to free nine residents of Unguwar Iya Jere in Kagarko LGA.
In the Southeast, kidnappers collected the highest proportion of demanded ransom—N419.2 million of the N645 million requested, representing a 65 percent payment rate. Anambra and Imo accounted for the bulk of these figures, including the high-profile kidnapping of spiritualist Chukwudozie Nwangwu (Akwa Okuko Tiwaraki), whose abductors demanded N300 million but ultimately received N350 million. In Imo, ransom payments often exceeded initial demands, such as the $50,000 paid for the body of retired Major General RC Duru. Across regions, kidnappers continued to request in-kind ransom items—from cigarettes and energy drinks in the South to motorcycles in the North—reflecting differing operational terrains. The review period also recorded rising dangers for ransom intermediaries, at least four of whom were killed and three abducted, including 27-year-old Abba, murdered in Kaduna after delivering N16 million and motorcycles to kidnappers who accused him of being disrespectful.
There is no gainsaying kidnapping in Nigeria occasionally takes a strange turn, with abductors now demanding not only cash but everyday household items as part of ransom settlements. In one widely reported case in the South-West, a family was forced to provide N3.5 million alongside a carton of Schnapps, 30 litres of palm oil, 10 tubers of yam, and a keg of vegetable oil before three victims were released.
Similar incidents have seen kidnappers ask for power banks, phone chargers, bags of garri, cooking oil, dried fish, groundnuts, alcohol and other provision-store staples. Security observers say this shift reflects the deepening economic hardship facing criminal groups who operate for survival as much as profit.
The development also highlights how unpredictable and unregulated hostage negotiations have become. Victims’ families describe kidnappers barging into negotiations with long shopping lists, sometimes requesting foodstuffs because they spend weeks hiding in the forest without reliable supplies.
Some analysts note that these unusual ransom demands demonstrate the collapsing financial value of criminal targets, as fewer victims can afford large cash payments. Whatever the motivation, the result is the same: Nigeria now faces a kidnapping industry in which abductors bargain in naira, food items and household essentials, further illustrating how deeply insecurity and economic decline have reshaped crime in the country.
Victim recounts 11-day ordeal in bandits’ den
A survivor of a deadly ambush and kidnapping incident in northern Nigeria has emotionally recounted how he spent 11 agonising days in captivity after gunmen opened fire on his convoy, killing four members of his team.
Speaking with The Nation, the man, who had travelled to attend to family obligations following the death of his mother, said the attack occurred on Friday, July 17, while returning from a visit.
“We were close to our destination when they laid ambush,” he said. “They came out of the bush and started shooting. My vehicle was hit massively. About three or four of our men died from bullet wounds. But God saved my life.”
He described how the attackers forced the survivors into the forest, where they were held from October 17 to October 27, surrounded by armed men day and night. “We spent 11 days and 11 nights in the bush. They beat and tortured us. Those guys were merciless. But God Almighty gave me strength,” he said.
The ordeal intensified when negotiations for ransom began. Captors forced hostages to call their pastors, families and employers to raise money for their release.
“At one point, I wondered why they insisted I must call my pastor,” he said. “But I obeyed. And surprisingly, the pastor picked up, and God moved. They reduced the ransom themselves.”
Church officials later revealed the ransom demands fluctuated, starting around N10 million before being negotiated down. Eventually, N2.5 million was raised to secure the man’s release,far lower than sums other victims were forced to pay.
The Kogi conundrum
Against the backdrop of studies revealing that women are more frequently kidnapped than men, the macabre reality manifested in the recent abduction of six female senior directors of the Federal Ministry of Defense, on November 10, 2025, along the Kabba–Yagba highway. The victims, Mrs Ngozi Ibeziakor, Mrs. C.A. Emeribe, Mrs. Helen Ezeakor, Mrs. C.A. Ladoye, Mrs. J.A. Onwuzurike and Mrs. Catherine O. Essien, all female staff, were travelling from Lagos to Abuja for a directorate-level promotion examination when their convoy was intercepted on the forested Kabba–Lokoja route.
Militants suspected to be Fulani ethnic armed groups operating along the Kabba–Yagba corridor have demanded a N150 million ransom for the release of their captives. The abduction comes barely weeks after the United States designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) over worsening attacks on Christian communities, a move analysts believe may have emboldened armed groups seeking to pressure or embarrass the federal government.
Indeed, communities along the Kabba–Lokoja axis say kidnapping and banditry have surged in recent months, turning one of Kogi State’s most important highways into a corridor of fear. The route, which connects Kabba through Yagba East and down toward Lokoja, winds through forest belts, broken road sections and sparsely manned checkpoints. Much of the stretch lacks surveillance systems or rapid emergency response, leaving motorists vulnerable to ambush.
Survivors say attackers typically shoot at vehicles to force them to stop before herding abductees into the surrounding bush, where negotiations begin under armed guard. The latest incident underscores the growing brazenness of violent militias, the precarious state of interstate travel even for senior officials, and the shrinking influence of government authority across Nigeria’s central heartland.
A nationwide emergency
Contrary to the widespread belief that kidnap-for-ransom is a criminal enterprise rooted in Niger Delta militancy or Fulani militia in northern Nigeria, recent patterns show it has evolved into a nationwide emergency cutting across geography and ethnicity. Rising incidents in the South, particularly the Southeast, underscore the uncomfortable truth: kidnapping has become a domestic industry run largely by locals.
In July 2025, Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo made a startling disclosure at a town hall meeting with Anambra indigenes in the United States. “Ninety-nine point nine nine per cent of kidnappers and other criminals arrested in Anambra since I assumed office have been Igbos,” he said, stressing that locals now abduct and kill their own people, not so-called invading Fulani herdsmen. Soludo noted that security forces had dismantled numerous camps operated by homegrown criminals, some of whom travel from neighbouring states specifically “to join the business.”
These individuals, he said, purchase motorcycles, relocate to Anambra, receive training in the bush, and embed themselves in a well-organised kidnap-for-profit network. He accused separatist groups in the region of hijacking agitation for self-determination and turning it into a lucrative personal enterprise built on extortion and abduction.
In February 2025, the Anambra State Police Command announced a major breakthrough in the investigation of the murder of Hon. Justice Azuka, Labour Party chieftain and lawmaker representing Onitsha North Constituency 1. Azuka had been abducted on December 24, 2024, and his decomposing body was recovered on February 6, 2025, near the 2nd Niger Bridge by a joint team of police and vigilante operatives. The police, led by Commissioner Nnaghe Obono Itam, arrested nine suspects and recovered two pump-action rifles. One suspect sustained a gunshot wound during a gun duel with operatives. The suspects, aged between 19 and 30, included several locals and one identified as the “most notorious,” bearing a tattoo reading “No Peace 4 the Government.”
Anambra’s notoriety recalls the saga of Chukwudumeme “Evans” Onwuamadike, the billionaire kidnap kingpin from Nnewi, arrested in Lagos, in 2017. Known for multimillion-dollar ransoms, Evans was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Though he now claims reformation, his story further highlights Nigeria’s entrenched kidnapping economy.
Taming the siege
Although the country has recorded some achievements against insecurity including the killings of over 15,000 insurgents in the North-east, the arrests of Ansaru leaders and the killings of bandits kingpins, the continued waves of violence put these feats to test.
Security experts have advised the government to address the growing threat of kidnapping and restore a sense of security to its citizens.
In the wake of the crisis, President Bola Tinubu has dispatched Vice President Kashim Shettima to Kebbi State to meet with grieving families of the abducted schoolgirls, likewise the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle. He also promised that the government is working to ensure their safe and swift return.
Tinubu lamented that the abduction occurred “despite intelligence warnings of a possible strike by the bandits,” even as he commended the Kebbi State Governor Mohammed Nasir Idris “for the efforts made to avert the kidnapping.”
Describing the attack as a painful setback, the President urged communities—particularly those in security-vulnerable areas—to work more closely with security operatives in order to avert or successfully quell similar attacks.
Between June and July 2025, the Nigeria Police Force arrested 5,488 suspects and rescued 170 kidnapped victims, according to the Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun. The IGP detailed nationwide breakthroughs including foiling a kidnap attempt in Kogi, seizing arms from traffickers in Benue, dismantling a kidnap ring in Edo, rescuing ambushed passengers in Taraba, breaking a trafficking ring involving 46 Ghanaians through Interpol collaboration, and taking down a cybercrime syndicate in Jigawa, alongside the recovery of 316 firearms, 2,884 rounds of ammunition, and 216 stolen vehicles.
Experts suggest a multi-faceted approach to combat kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria, combining security enhancements, economic interventions, judicial reforms, and community engagement. A key consensus is that good governance is essential to resolving the underlying issues.
Doyin Olowoyo, a security analyst and private security proprietor, said Nigeria must overhaul its security system with modern surveillance and intelligence-led tactics to stay ahead of kidnappers. He noted that demand for private bodyguards is rising because “citizens no longer trust that the state can protect them,” arguing for nationwide deployment of drones, CCTV networks, and AI monitoring, alongside specialized anti-kidnapping units trained like those in Mexico and Colombia. He argued that Nigeria must strengthen institutional discipline and eliminate corruption to ensure that security funding results in real operational capacity. He said, porous borders, unregulated motorcycle use, and lack of fuel controls enable kidnappers’ mobility and must be addressed, while intelligence sharing across agencies must improve. Beyond security measures, he called for economic initiatives that reduce youth recruitment into gangs, a shift toward cashless transactions to disrupt ransom payments, stronger financial transparency, and judicial reforms imposing stiffer penalties, stressing that government, communities, businesses, and civil society must work together to restore deterrence.
On his part, Kunle Gbadebo, a retired police inspector now in private security in Seychelles, noted that security forces have manpower but lack coordination, insisting that “money must stop disappearing at the top.” He recommended better funded tactical units, professional hostage negotiators, better federal-state synergy, and deeper integration of community intelligence networks, which are the most powerful tool in preventing attacks. Gbadebo also suggested stiffer penalties for offenders, structured trauma support for victims, and greater investment in rural economic opportunities to weaken criminal recruitment. While supporting reduced reliance on ransom payments, he acknowledged the ethical dilemma, adding that lasting progress requires Nigerian-led solutions reinforced by international training, and united action across government, the private sector, religious groups, civil society, and local communities.
Chorus of the lost
The names stack upon one another: Hanifa, Khadija, the 25 girls of Maga, Chibok’s 276 girls, Dapchi’s 110 girls, Jangebe’s 279 girls, Bethel Baptist’s 110 pupils, the recently abducted students of
St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, and thousands yet unreported and forgotten.
Kidnap for ransom has carved Nigeria open, exposing its soft underbelly: its weak institutions, exhausted security apparatus, abandoned families, underfunded investigations, and bruised faith.
Trust has become a dangerous currency in Nigeria. Hanifa trusted the man who opened her classroom door. Khadija trusted the woman who bought her biscuits. The Kebbi girls trusted the walls of their hostel. Parents send their children into the world with prayers clutched like shields. They watch them walk away and hold their breath until they return. Some never return.
Hanifa’s story rattled the country, her photos trended, even as more than 15,000 tweets and #hashtags bore her name. The Court delivered justice; yet the digital storm could not reverse the ravage of the rat poison or restore the heartbeat silenced by Tanko.
No magnitude of outrage or thundering procession of tweets could bring little Hanifa back to life. These days, it is hard to stare at her pictures. Photographs of her in her final years are so incredibly hard to look at. Yet, her father, Abubakar, relives her final words to him in successive but bittersweet recalls.
As she prepared to go to school on that particular Saturday, December 2, 2021, she pranced over to him, saying she was prepared to go for her Islamic lessons. He, in turn, told her to pray and she did in his presence. Afterwards, she turned to her mother and said, “Please, buy me Alewar madara (milk candy) on your way back from the market.”
Today, Hanifa’s parents must relive such delightful moments spent with her as a necessary rite of remembering. Beyond nostalgia, the memories trigger tears. Perhaps because all they can do is remember her; they can no longer experience her.
Still, her name will live in their prayers, like a plea that never gets answered.
