KOGI KIDNAPPING HORROR: ₦600 MILLION DEMAND EXPOSES DEEP SECURITY FAILURE

These are the faces of the latest victims of kidnapping in Kogi State — members of Ekoa Church in Aiyetoro. Among them are elderly people and children. Innocent Nigerians.

The kidnappers are demanding a staggering ₦600 million before they will release everyone.

This is not random crime. This is not street-level criminality.

This operation is organized, calculated, and deeply structured. Kidnappings of this scale do not happen by chance.

Let it be said clearly and repeatedly: operations like this cannot exist without people who understand weapons, terrain, intelligence, and movement.

The people behind these kidnappings have military, police, and DSS experience — serving or retired. There is no other explanation.

Nigeria will never solve the kidnapping crisis until the root cause is confronted.

You cannot arm soldiers with assault rifles and pay them ₦100,000–₦150,000 monthly.

You cannot give policemen guns and pay them ₦80,000–₦150,000.

You cannot deploy security operatives into forests for months with poor welfare, no insurance, no housing, no support — and expect lifelong loyalty.

Who understands the bush better than the people you trained and sent there?

All it takes is collaboration.

Some security operatives link up with criminal groups. Some use herders or bandits as fronts. Some provide intelligence, routes, and protection.

This is why these kidnappings are precise. This is why they follow the same corridors — Kogi, Edo, connected highways, forest belts.

This is why they are not chaotic like terror attacks. This is why they look like business operations.

These are system kidnappings.

Politics also plays a role. During elections, politicians arm thugs. After elections, those boys are abandoned.

The guns remain. The boys remain. And later, states are destabilized through kidnapping and armed crime.

The perfect camouflage?

Herdsmen.

Yes, some herders commit crimes — but they are also used as cover for larger, more connected criminal networks involving politicians and security insiders.

Now the painful reality:

The victims are already in the bush. The kidnappers know the terrain better than any rescue team.

So what usually happens?

Ransom is paid.

Until Nigeria fixes security welfare, accountability, intelligence coordination, and political complicity, these stories will not stop.

Today it is Kogi. Tomorrow it will be another state.

Everything is connected.

Peace and love.