₦100 MILLION RANSOM DEMAND: HOW PUBLIC CROWDFUNDING FUELED KIDNAPPING IN NIGERIA

VDM has reacted to the heartbreaking kidnapping incident involving a man whose wife is pregnant and who also has a four-year-old child — a situation made even more painful as Christmas approaches.

According to available information, the kidnappers are demanding a staggering ₦100 million ransom. VDM described the demand as outrageous but warned that such figures are not random.

He explained that kidnappers now feel emboldened because Nigerians have previously crowdfunded huge ransom sums publicly to secure releases. Once criminals saw communities raise ₦20 million and above openly, it permanently reset their expectations.

What used to be ₦200,000 or ₦300,000 ransoms quickly escalated into tens of millions. According to VDM, the same regions where massive ransom funds were raised in the past are now experiencing repeated abductions with even higher demands.

“This is not coincidence,” he said. This is pattern recognition.

VDM further warned that kidnapping is no longer limited to bandits in the bush. Investigations reveal involvement of compromised insiders — including retired and serving military officers, police officers, and security operatives who understand terrain and movement patterns.

In many cases, kidnappings occur close to checkpoints, raising serious questions about complicity. He added that poverty and poor welfare within the security system make officers vulnerable to exploitation by criminal networks.

VDM emphasized that blaming one ethnic group repeatedly ignores the deeper, structural failures enabling these crimes.

“When you pay extreme ransom publicly, you don’t end kidnapping — you multiply it.”

While expressing deep concern for the victim and his family, VDM urged Nigerians to think long-term. Public ransom culture, he warned, only guarantees more kidnappings, higher demands, and more innocent lives at risk.

His message was clear: stop empowering kidnappers unintentionally, demand accountability within security institutions, and confront the reality of how ransom culture has worsened insecurity nationwide.

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