BUSINESS DAY
Farmers in Nigeria paid over N1.19 billion as ransoms for their release from bandits between 2020 and 2024.
An analysis of various 2024 crisis reports released by the research firm, SBM Intelligence, shows that between 2020 and 2024, farmers in Nigeria’s insecurity hotspots States, paid over N1.19 billion for their release from bandits’ dens.
The SBM report noted that the FCT had the highest ransom demands, followed closely by Lagos and Kaduna States.
However, when comparing the geopolitical zones, the South-East had the highest ransom paid and collection rate overall, reflecting how kidnappers have continued to demand in-kind .
“That farmers had to pay N1.19 billion to save their lives is huge. Very huge,” said Shakin Agbayewo, deputy chairman of Africa Farmers Association of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter.
“If we cannot bring back safe farming, then whatever policy or ideas we have as a country is a sham”, he added.
Agbayewo noted that governmental bodies (State and Federal) should begin to recruit local security guards to secure farms in rural communities, stressing the need to look into creating alternative measures of security for farmers.
“Whatever names the government wants to give local security, let them call them, but let them employ them. We need the services of local security that knows the in and out of our forest,” he said.
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