A stakeholder group, the Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), lately canvassed criminalisation of ransom payment to abductors to discourage the menace of kidnappings in Nigeria. The group called on authorities to strictly implement existing statute prohibiting payment of ransom in the country.
Agency reports cited an open letter in which the group’s National President Isah Abubakar lamented the trend by which despite efforts by gallant security forces, kidnapping remains a profitable venture for criminal actors owing to ransom payments by desperate citizens. His plea, according to reports, was by an open letter addressed to National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu. Dated January 3, 2026, the letter was copied to the Minister of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff, military Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police.
Abubakar said he was writing on behalf of not just NYCN, but millions of northern youths bearing the brunt of insecurity ravaging different communities. He called on authorities to take a strong stand by enforcing the law against ransom payment because, according to him, such payments have been the “oxygen of banditry”. Every ransom paid, he argued, enables bandits to buy weapons, fund logistics and recruit soldiers; hence, paying ransom inadvertently subsidises terrorism.
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The youth leader urged immediate gazetting and publicisation of existing law criminalising ransom payment. He said such law must not be merely on paper but should be forcefully applied, as that is the only way to break the demand-and-supply chain. He also canvassed intelligence-driven rescue operations using technological tools in place of negotiating ransom payment for release of kidnapped victims. While he acknowledged the emotional trauma families face when loved ones get abducted, he argued that ransom payment create a bigger public challenge and called for criminal liability against families or societal groups that negotiate with kidnappers.
Abubakar’s plea is persuasive but hollow. It is likely the legal framework he had in mind was a legislation processed in 2022 by the National Assembly, which prescribed a 15-year jail term for paying ransom to free abductees. Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, then chairman of the Senate’s judiciary, human rights and legal committee, told the red chamber that making ransom payment punishable with lengthy jail sentences should “discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom in Nigeria.” The bill also prescribed the death penalty for convicted kidnappers where the abduction leads to loss of life, and life imprisonment in other cases. The House of Representatives, later same year, passed the legislation prohibiting ransom payment to free kidnap victims.
The fatal flaw of the legislation, which it is doubtful ever became a law, is that it is double jeopardy for abductees and their families. You could not stop innocent citizens from being kidnapped, and now you want to hamstring relatives from securing their release from abductors. You could well go tell it to the birds.