Kidnapping: Govt, security officials made money under Buhari – Charles Omole alleges

Dr Charles Omole, the author of ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, has alleged that government and security officials made a huge amounts of money from kidnapping under Buhari’s administration.

Omole alleged this on Thursday during an interview on State Affairs, a podcast hosted by Edmund Obilo.

He claimed that government and security officials turned the insecurity into a kidnapping industry complex.

According to him, “Monetisation of insecurity was rampant under Buhari’s administration. There’s no doubt about that.

“Insecurity became more profitable. To make the government to pay, the kidnappers had to cause maximum embarrassment to the government.

“The kidnappers go to a village and kidnap 100 children, whose parents are peasants. They don’t expect the poor parents to pay, but the government.

“This started happening under Buhari’s administration. For example, it was a situation where government and security officials would ask Buhari to pay 500 million naira to get the kidnapped children released, and he would approve it.

“Maybe the children were actually released based on 50 or 100 million naira. The remaining 400 million is pocketed by people.

“The point is, there were people within the system benefiting from it. So if you were benefiting from it, then the more kidnapping that happens, the better for you. That’s the problem.”

Kidnapping: Govt, security officials made money under Buhari – Charles Omole alleges