A government official was kidnapped from his home in northern Nigeria on Monday, authorities said, and a Swiss national was abducted in a different occurrence in the southwest over the weekend, as per security sources.
Kidnappings for ransom have become a major issue in many areas in Nigeria in recent months as a result of severe economic hardship caused by insurgency and the fallouts of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mohammed Sani Idris, a commissioner from the state government in northern Niger State, was taken from his home in the town of Baban Tunga during the night by obscure aggressors, a representative for the state government said.
In southwestern Ogun State, a Swiss national and his Nigerian driver were snatched on Saturday after a gunfight between their police escort and obscure aggressors, as indicated by security sources working in Nigeria.
The Swiss embassy in Abuja didn’t react to a request for input, nor did the Ogun State police representative.
The increase in kidnappings and armed robberies, particularly in provincial regions, is devastatingly affecting Nigerian society, with food deficiencies on the increase as farmers can’t get to their fields, and individuals are too frightened to even consider voyaging anyplace.
The emergency is especially awful in northwestern states, where more than 1,000 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since December in assaults on schools. Some have been released following ransom payments.
