Abuja, Nigeria – A resident of Ushafa Community in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was tragically shot dead during a bandit invasion of his residence on Thursday night. The assailants also abducted the deceased’s wife and children, adding to the community’s distress amid ongoing widespread insecurity in the region.
A police source confirmed the incident but provided limited details. The community of Ushafa has experienced several attacks as part of the broader security challenges plaguing Nigeria.
Efforts to reach SP Josephine Adeh, the Police Public Relations Officer in FCT, for comments were unsuccessful, as her phone repeatedly went unanswered at the time of reporting.
This incident follows a report by SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market and security intelligence firm, which revealed that Nigerians paid a staggering N1.048 billion as ransom to kidnappers between July 2023 and June 2024. The report, titled ‘Grim Reaping,’ identified the FCT as having the highest ransom demands in the country, with Lagos and Kaduna closely following.
SBM Intelligence’s findings underscore the worsening security situation and the surge in kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. The report noted that while abductors demanded N11 billion as ransom within the period, only N1.048 billion was actually paid. It attributed the rise in ransom-driven kidnappings to economic stagnation, observing that kidnappers increasingly target a broader spectrum of victims, initially setting high ransom demands that are often reduced to amounts that families or social organizations can afford.
