December 8, 2025 l Dalena Reporters
The North‑West emerges as the epicentre of this criminal web, with states such as Katsina State, Zamfara State and Kaduna State highlighted as hotspots. Within these states, the report singles out alleged kingpins and their networks including individuals like a 24‑year‑old identified as Samaila Ibrahim (aka “Kachalla”, “Dan Antuna”), suspected of orchestrating high‑profile abductions along major highways. Others, such as “Aliyu Abubakar Umar (aka Lalbi 1 / Lalbi 2)” and “Aish Buhari,” are accused of facilitating kidnappings, ransom negotiations, and even international communications tied to extortion on behalf of the network.
Beyond individuals, the report reveals a layered support system enabling the kidnappings — alleged informants, logistics operators, and sympathisers. Names like “Ashiru Salisu,” “Shaaibu Sulaiman,” and “Sani Farouk” are mentioned as suspected collaborators who allegedly provide logistical support for abductions, weapons supply, ransom collection routes, and safe‑house networks across border areas. According to the NFIU intelligence, some of these networks reportedly enjoy the tacit protection or complicity of politically exposed persons or local figures raising alarms about the depth of infiltration and systemic corruption.
Analysts say this report corroborates a troubling pattern: kidnappings and banditry in northern Nigeria have long ceased to be random acts of crime; instead, they have evolved into structured, profit‑oriented enterprises with hierarchical leadership, operational cells, cross‑regional logistics, and illicit financing channels. Recent security data support this assessment: for instance, between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 people were abducted nationwide in 997 separate kidnapping incidents, with hundreds reportedly killed or missing.
The revelations come at a critical moment. As bandit attacks, mass abductions, and killings surge across northern communities disrupting livelihoods, displacing populations, and deepening mistrust in security institutions the intelligence report adds urgency to calls for sweeping reform of Nigeria’s security architecture. Civil‑society groups, human‑rights organisations and several state governments have already warned that without robust, coordinated action, the proliferation of small arms, unregulated militias, and criminal networks will continue to undermine national stability.
Whether the political will exists to dismantle the syndicates and to disrupt the enablers protecting them remains an open question. What is certain, however, is that the scope of the criminal enterprise laid out in the NFIU’s intelligence dossier paints a grim picture of Nigeria’s security landscape: one in which citizens in the North increasingly live under the shadow of organised crime masked, invisible, and deeply entrenched.
Source: Sahara Reporters