Kidnappers have grabbed up to 512 people across the country this year alone an increase of almost half of what was recorded for the whole of last year.
Minister of Police Affairs Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, who revealed this in Abuja, said 30 of those kidnapped since January died in the hands of their captors.
Lame also said the figures were a sharp increase over the 353 people abducted in 2008 with only two captives losing their lives.
He said militancy in the Niger Delta, which brought about kidnapping, grew because politicians use the militants.
Kidnapping in the country started growing since 2006 when Niger Delta militants began abducting expatriates for ransom.
Lame said the weapons used by criminals in the Niger Delta are more sophisticated than those used by the police, but added that government was moving to reverse this. He said no government in the last 20 years has supported the police like the present administration.
“The question of militants started as a political move,” the minister said. “Politicians use them. Gradually it degenerated from mere agitation to militancy. It became very disheartening to government that money has now become the central point for criminal situation in the Niger Delta.”
“We have realized that most of the cases of kidnapping are internally generated especially within the family. The action which started from kidnapping of oil expatriates moved to men of God and children. The police are very concerned about the life of those kidnapped,” he added.
Lame said a bill providing stiffer punishment for kidnappers had been submitted to the National Assembly.
He said special security would be provided for seven cities, namely Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Kano, Abuja, Maiduguri and Kaduna for which N7.45 billion had been budgeted this year.
The minister said there were plans to set up six forensic laboratories in each of the six geo-political zones in addition to mobile forensic laboratories.