Kidnap-for-Ransom Industry Swelled after Governor’s Amnesty in 2024
By Mike Odeh James
(Kaduna) Prominent Middle Belt leaders, religious clerics Nigerian ex-pats have repudiated the recent claim by an aide to the Kaduna State Governor that the state government secured the release of 500 persons allegedly held hostage by Fulani terrorists.
Ahmed Mayaki, Commissioner of Information in Kaduna, claims that the state government has secured the release of 500 persons kidnapped by the terrorists without paying ransom or confrontation.
“This is no ‘peace deal,’ texted lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, a native of Benue living today in the Washington, D.C., area to TruthNigeria. “On the contrary, It’s a way of securing freedom of captives by barter rather than cash. It has no probative value and is not verifiable,” according to Ogebe.
“Seven days ago, a pastor was killed and 20 members of his congregation abducted in the very Kaduna state,” Ogebe continued.
“The fact is that the past Governor of Kaduna admitted to going abroad to payoff Fulani militias, and they moved to Kaduna and established a kidnap cottage industry that is now transnational,” Ogebe said by text.
“No peace deal has worked and providing material instead of cash is still a ransom payment and incentive for more kidnappings.”
Nigerian Christian thought leaders, who spoke exclusively to TruthNigeria, dismissed the offer as a patent attempt to whitewash the government’s controversial peace initiatives with terror groups.
Rev. James Gyang Pam, a respected Middle Belt historian and retired university lecturer, expressed deep skepticism over the claim. According to him, the alleged mass release of captives cannot be validated without verifiable evidence.
“Let us see pictures, let us see names of the victims and let us talk to them and their family members,” Rev. Pam said. “As far as I am concerned, anything that is shrouded in secrecy has a tendency of misleading the public.”
Pam questioned the government’s silence on the identities and origins of the said terrorists.
“We want to know who these terrorists are. Are they Fulanis from Katsina, Birnin Gwari, or Zamfara—or are they foreign fighters from the Sahel?” Pam asked.
Pam further criticized what he described as the state’s “appeasement policy” towards terrorists, warning that offering incentives such as education or employment to combatants would embolden criminality rather than end it.
“The government said it offered the terrorists education and employment opportunities for them to abandon terrorism. This is appeasing the terrorists,” he said.
“You can’t appease terrorists while the victims of their evil deeds are still mourning their dead and living as internally displaced persons in other states and communities,” the cleric added.
Pam stressed that, to his knowledge, there had been no credible case of hostages being released without ransom payments or security operations.
“I have not seen or heard of victims who were released just like that without a dime being paid as ransom. I don’t subscribe to such a peace model, and I don’t believe in it—it won’t work,” he said.
Supporting Pam’s position, Rev. Sam Albert Magai, the founder of Kings Worship Chapel and Ministry in Sabo Tasha, Kaduna, said the so-called peace model does not reflect the reality in Southern Kaduna or across the Middle Belt.
“As far as Kaduna and other states of the Middle Belt are concerned, I have not heard about people taken hostage by Fulani terrorists being released by the state government through negotiation or any form of appeasement,” Rev. Magai told TruthNigeria.
Both clerics’ comments underscore a growing discontent with the Kaduna peace strategy, which some analysts believe mirrors previous “amnesty-for-bandits” policies that failed to curb violent extremism.
“Without justice for victims, a transparent deradicalization framework, and genuine community reconciliation, the so-called Kaduna Peace Model risks legitimizing terror groups while leaving affected communities vulnerable and traumatized, Magai told TruthNigeria.
The Kaduna State Government has yet to provide verifiable data or photographic evidence of the alleged 500 freed hostages, further fueling skepticism among citizens and security analysts alike.
Death Camps in Rijana the Destination of Kidnapped Victims
As reported by TruthNigeria, the Middle Belt Forum loudly protested Gov. Sani’s amnesty with bandit terrorists on Nov. 29, 2024. The forum noted that past governments of Zamfara and Katsina states had attempted similar amnesty programs, which were followed by an escalation of kidnapping and extortion by the bandits. “It is on record that past Governments of Zamfara and Katsina state have tried such an exercise and it ended up in escalating the criminality of the bandits who are absolutely not persons of honor and integrity and, as such, their words cannot be trusted,” the forum stated.
Security experts speaking to TruthNigeria on background only concluded that bandit terrorists sheltering in Birnin Gwari forest in western Kaduna used the governor’s amnesty to refocus their kidnapping business to Southern Kaduna’ southern rural areas. Hundreds of rural farmer families – men, women and children – in the local governance areas of Chikun, Kachia, Kajuru, Kaura and Kauru have been systematically kidnapped for ransom and held for months on end in the vast forest stretching from Rijana to Maro in Kaduna State. The victims are believed to be in a system of death camps near Rijana and in close proximity to Nigerian army bases. Hostages whose families don’t provide ransoms are routinely executed, according to survivors speaking to TruthNigeria.
Mike Odeh James is a Kaduna-based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
