Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, has addressed the issue of kidnapping in Nigeria, providing insights that challenge popular narratives.
According to Adejobi, kidnapping in Nigeria has been a source of public anxiety and fear, especially with social media platforms amplifying isolated incidents.
Speaking in an interview, Adejobi, suggests that the perception of an increase in kidnapping cases is largely influenced by social media, which tends to sensationalize and exaggerate the problem.
He urged the public to be more critical and discerning of the information they consume online and to verify the facts before sharing or reacting to them.
“The most cases is the topography of some of these areas, see Buhari for instance, see the topography.
“Don’t forget the kidnapping in Lagos was triggered due to the waterways. Do you know that the water from Lagos, the waterway from Lagos leads to Delta, leads to Port Harcourt, leads to Bayelsa? It is the same waterway.
“Ekiti is a forest and the thing you need to know is that when you study all this, there are certain things the police cannot do.
“It’s not that it’s going up like that, forget what we read in social media, in reality, it is not so. This war in Ekiti is just an isolated case that just happened recently, It’s not that it is something that’s happening daily.
“We have isolated cases, but when you read them on social media, you think it is not what you have on record.
“So we don’t have the incident of kidnapping on the rise from Ekiti or anywhere in the southwestern part of the northeastern or southeastern part of Nigeria.
“I’ve just told you, that’s a thing we need to consider when discussing kidnapping and it’s not that the security agencies, particularly the police, it’s not that we don’t rescue. I can tell you that with the record, I have, we have many rescues in Abuja, rescues in Plateau, and rescues in Kaduna daily.
“And I want to put it to you that so far the number of total kidnapping suspects arrested, that we even addressed the 189, those that are rescued are 154 in the last month.
“It is not that we don’t rescue, but don’t forget. I have told you that paying for ransom is negative to us. It got to a stage where somebody did crowdfunding on social media, this will not help us in any way.
“If you analyze criminals, crowdfunding is not allowed. How can you come on social media and tell people to gather money to go and rescue?
“It kills our morals, it kills the system and it’s not allowed, I still say it now, It’s condemned. We should not encourage that. The more we encourage payment of ransom, it makes that dirty business more lucrative,” he said.
