Lagos and Nigeria have highest crime rates in Nigeria

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said that the FCT and Lagos State reported a total of 58,566 crime cases in 2016.

The NBS stated this in a Crime Statistics: Reported by Type and State in 2016 and posted on the bureau’s website on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to the bureau, the FCT and Lagos State reported highest crime cases while Katsina State and Abia had the lowest percentage share of total cases reported in 2016.

The bureau said that the FCT reported 13,181 crime cases while Lagos State reported 45, 385 crime cases.

The cases were in categories as offence against persons, offence against property, offence against lawful authority and offence against local Acts.

A breakdown of crime cases showed that FCT reported 2,984 cases of offence against persons, 9,350 cases against property, 843 cases lawful authority and only four cases against local Acts.

The report said offence against persons are those offences against human beings such as murder, manslaughter, infanticide, concealment of birth, rape and other physical abuse, etc.

Offences against properties were those offences against human belonging: Properties of any kind like stealing, receiving stolen properties, obtaining property by false pretence, robbery, burglary and house breaking.

Offences against lawful authority, this is any offence committed against any establishment of the law e.g. failure to pay tax to the appropriate authority.

It explained that Local Acts are those laws that we cannot enforce outside Nigeria – e.g. Liquor Act or Firearms Act.

Meanwhile, the bureau said that Lagos State reported 15,426 cases of offence against persons; 22,885 cases of offence against property; 6,768 cases of offence against lawful authority and 306 cases of offence against offence local Acts.

The bureau further stated that a total of 125,790 cases were reported from the 36 states in 2016.

It stated that offence against property had the highest number of cases reported with 65,397 of such cases.

The bureau said that offence against persons recorded 45,554 cases reported while offence against lawful authority and local Acts recorded the least with 12,144 and 2,695 cases recorded respectively.

It stated that Lagos State had the highest percentage share of total cases reported with 36.08 per cent and 45,385 cases recorded.

The bureau stated that FCT Abuja and Delta State followed closely with 10.48 per cent and 13,181 and 6.25 per cent and 7,867 cases recorded respectively.

It stated that Katsina State had the lowest percentage share of total cases reported with 0.10 per cent and 120 cases recorded.

The bureau stated that Abia and Zamfara followed closely with 0.29 per cent and 364 cases and 0.38 per cent and 483 cases recorded respectively.

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Nigeria most wanted kidnapper captured

Kidnap for ransom is big business in Nigeria. It has one of the highest abduction rates in the world, with the U.S., U.K. and other governments warning travelers to the West African country that kidnapping is a real possibility.

But Nigerian authorities are hoping that the risk has been significantly decreased after they captured alleged kidnapper Chukwudi Dumem Onuamadkie, also known as Evans, over the weekend.

Evans, 36 and a native of Anambra State in Southern Nigeria, has been described as “most wanted, vicious and highly notorious.” He has been implicated in a series of high-profile kidnappings in the country in recent years, according to an emailed statement from Nigeria’s police; his victims included foreign nationals, traditional chiefs and wealthy businessmen. Evans also has become one of Nigeria’s wealthiest alleged criminals: Police said he owns two mansions in an upmarket district of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, as well as two properties in Accra, the capital of neighboring Ghana.

According to Nigeria’s police force, Evans would use two separate gangs to conduct kidnappings: one to carry out the abduction and another to transfer the victim to a safe house. The gang leader extracted million-dollar ransoms from the families of his victims, whom he would keep in captivity for months at a time. In one case, Evans’ gang allegedly attempted to double a $1 million ransom because the victim’s family were rude during the negotiation process.

Police raided a Lagos property belonging to Evans on Saturday and engaged in a gun battle with the suspect and his associates. Security forces eventually overpowered them and arrested seven people in the operation, while also seizing 10 guns and more than 1,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition.

“This is a huge success for the Nigeria Police Force. The Force will build on this success and continue to prevent kidnap cases and criminality generally in the country,” said Jimoh Moshood, police public relations officer at the force’s headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Moshood said that Evans and his gang members had “confessed to all the kidnappings linked to them” and would be charged following an investigation.

Nigeria is facing a wide range of security issues. Boko Haram, a jihadi group with ties to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), continues to launch attacks in the northeast, though it has been substantially weakened by military offensives. Tensions remain high in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where militants slashed oil production in 2016 by blowing up pipelines. And clashes between settled farmers and pastoralists in the country’s Middle Belt resulted in more deaths in 2016 than the Boko Haram insurgency, according to a report by Nigerian consultancy SBM Intelligence.

But Evans’ capture marks the second high-profile advance in tackling the kidnapping problem in recent months. In March, police shot dead an alleged kidnapper and serial killer, Henry Chibueze—popularly known as Vampire for the brutality of his killings—after he escaped detention in January and went on the run.

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