Over 971 Nigerians abducted in October 2024 – Report

No fewer than 971 Nigerians were abducted across the country in October 2024.

The revelation is coming amid the emergence of a new terror group, ‘Lakurawa’ in the northwestern part of the country.

The data is contained in the ‘October 2024 Nigeria Security Report’ by Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, BSIL, a security risk management and intelligence consulting company.

The report said there’s a deterioration of security metrics of incidents, abductions and fatalities in the country, warning that the rising numbers suggested that 2024 was likely to be the worst year in security performance in about a decade.

It explained that the month under review was marked mainly by developments associated with violent activities, including killings and kidnapping for ransom mainly by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), criminal gangs, cult groups, and armed ethnic militias, and social unrest in the form of protests and labour action triggered by the harsh socio-economic circumstances in the country and political activities.

The security firm revealed that data collected indicated that the country recorded a 51% rise in fatalities and 24.42% increase in abductions.

A breakdown of the report according to BEACON INTEL showed Nigeria recorded 861 security incidents, of which 64.92% (559) were attributed to security threats, 24.79% (215) consisted of security forces operations, and 4.99% (43) were attributed to safety incidents from October 1-31, 2024.

In the month under review, the country also recorded 1545 fatalities, with 67.70% attributed to civilian deaths, 25.89% to criminals/non-state armed groups (NSAGs), and 6.40% attributed to security forces and 971 individuals abducted.

In terms of distribution across the country, the North East and North West regions were the most affected by security incidents, which account for 52.03% of the total incidents, respectively, whereas the South East reported the fewest incidents at 7.78%.

“The number of individuals abducted increased from 807 in September 2024 to 971 in October 2024, marking a 20.32% increase and a shift from the 11.03% decline recorded in September 2024.

“The North West was the hardest hit, with 83.83% of all abductions occurring in this region, while the South West region experienced the least number of abductions with 0.21%.

“Of the total number of abducted individuals, Northern Nigeria accounted for 954 (98.25%), while Southern Nigeria accounted for 17 (1.75%),” the report added.

The breakdown also showed that the number of individuals killed increased from 1,022 in September 2024 to 1,545 in October 2024, indicating an increase of 51.17%.

It explained that the variations for the North West (37.93%) and North Central (28.16%) regions had the highest numbers cumulatively, accounting for 66.09% of total fatalities.

The South-South had the lowest fatality rates, at 3.56%. Of the total number of fatalities, Northern Nigeria accounted for (1,283) 83.04%, while Southern Nigeria accounted for (262) 16.96%.

The CEO, Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, Dr Kabir Adamu explained that the country has a weak and ineffective security management system.

Adamu said this explained why the country hasn’t been able to address the root causes and manifestation of insecurities in the country.

The security expert warned that the security situation in the country had really deteriorated, stressing it might result in more fatalities in Nigeria, if the trajectory continues.

“We just published our October report. What it says is that the situation has really deteriorated, and we are a bit alarmed with the rate of deterioration.

“If it continues at this rate, perhaps what we are likely to get is more fatality in Nigeria in the last 10 months, if this trajectory that we are seeing continues.

“There are three reasons driving insecurity. The socio-economic factor, the cost of living crisis that we are experiencing and other socioe-conomic issues.

“Then the political issue, for instance, the off-cycle election, and the outcome of the 2023 election.

“For the fact that some people felt aggrieved they didn’t get the justice they deserved and now kind of sabotaging the government as it were.

“The last one is the environmental factor; the climate change issue that is causing both internal and external factors in the movement of transhuman, herders, and geopolitics in the Sahel region. Such are responsible for the rise in insecurity.

“Of course, for the fact we don’t have a security management system in place to address these factors, both the drivers and the triggers, as well as the root causes are also other factors.

“We have a very weak and ineffective security management system that has not been able to address the root causes and manifestation of insecurities in the country.

“Our criminal justice system is ineffective that people feel that when they complain or take their case, especially to the law enforcement, they are not heard. A significant number of those people will rather pick guns to get their pound of flesh.

“It’s a failure of our security strategy. We have at least three laws in the country that are meant to prevent terrorism. Number one is the National Counter-Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) that was passed in 2016. Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) launched in 2017.

“Another one is Terrorism Preventing and Prohibition Act (2022) – NCTC, which was amended in 2022. If you read them, there are at least five elements: to forestall, to secure, to identify, to prevent, and then to implement.

“First we would have to address current challenges in terrorism that we have. And more importantly, we would have prevented new one from emerging.

“Under these five elements that I mentioned, they include securing our borders, they include forming a partnership with our neighbouring countries like Niger, Chad, Benin Republic, Cameroon. Because we did not implement it, most Nigerians are not even aware of the existence of these documents.

“Government has failed in buying the minds of Nigerians to the extent that Nigerians would be supportive of these three documents.

“And when you have a terrorism challenge, remember that in terrorism there are three elements. We have the government, audience (Nigerians) and the perpetrators.

“Both the perpetrators and the government are speaking to the audience, where the government fails to get influence over the audience, then the perpetrators will get influence over the audience.

“Because we haven’t communicated in a strategic manner the content of these three documents, to the extent that the market woman in the place where these Lakurawa emerged does not even know which number to call or whom to approach if she sees a member of Lakurawa. That’s the failure of governance.”