{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T10:13:24Z","timestamp":1789035204579,"version":"build-2803163510"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/openresafrica.16586.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000}}],"reference-count":19,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["openresearchafrica.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Open Res Africa"],"abstract":"<ns3:p>This article examined the escalating threat of kidnapping within Nigeria\u2019s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from 2021 to 2025. The objective is to critically evaluate the extent to which the 2019 National Security Strategy (NSS) has been effectively operationalized by relevant security agencies in addressing kidnapping. Mixed research methods, and the Routine Activity Theory and Institutional Capacity Theory were applied. Both theories illuminate how the convergence of motivated offenders, unsuitable guardianship, and institutional weaknesses sustains the kidnapping economy in Nigeria\u2019s capital. Drawing on an original incident-level dataset of 167 documented abduction events in the FCT spanning 2021 to 2025, qualitative expert testimony from a senior security intelligence practitioner, and a comprehensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature, the study found that kidnapping incidents increased dramatically over this period from 21 incidents and 62 victims in 2021 to a peak of 50 incidents and 247 victims in 2023 before a partial numerical decline in 2024 and early 2025 that nonetheless left total abductions at 718 across the study period, with 34 persons killed. The article concluded that the persistent of kidnapping reflects not a failure of policy design, but a profound implementation gap rooted in five interrelated structural pathologies: fragmented inter-agency coordination, inadequate community intelligence integration, equipment and technological deficits, prosecutorial inefficacy, and the siloed intelligence culture among security institutions. The article recommended for prioritization of the Multi-Agency Anti-Kidnap Fusion Cell (MAAKFC), enforcement of cashless financial policies to disrupt ransom economies, and the formulation of a standalone national anti-kidnapping policy framework.<\/ns3:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/openresafrica.16586.2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T09:44:09Z","timestamp":1789033449000},"page":"40","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/openresafrica.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["NIGERIA'S NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY AND THE ROLE OF SECURITY AGENCIES IN COMBATTING KIDNAPPING IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITIORY ABUJA FROM 2021-2025"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-9690-7890","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aisha Annie","family":"Yahaya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Political Science and International Relations Abuja Federal Capital Territory Nile University of Nigeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-5191-8545","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dimas","family":"Garba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Political Science and International Relations Abuja Federal Capital Territory Nile University of Nigeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"1-24","article-title":"Policing and security in Nigeria: Institutional legitimacy, public trust and operational constraints.","volume":"53","author":"D Agbiboa","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Modern African Studies."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"061-076","DOI":"10.22190\/FULP2201061A","article-title":"A web of crimes, routine activity theory and the deepening scourge of armed banditry in Nigeria.","volume":"20","author":"T Akinyetun","year":"2022","journal-title":"Facta Universitatis, Series: Law and Politics."},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781139060974","author":"M Andrews","year":"2013","journal-title":"The limits of institutional reform in development: Changing rules for realistic solutions."},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"481-493","DOI":"10.53982\/ajsd.2018.1102.16-j","article-title":"Intelligence sharing: The challenges among the Nigerian security agencies and government.","volume":"11","author":"D Bodunde","year":"2018","journal-title":"African Journal of Stability and Development."},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"588-608","DOI":"10.2307\/2094589","article-title":"Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach.","volume":"44","author":"L Cohen","year":"1979","journal-title":"American Sociological Review."},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1057\/s41599-025-06412-4","article-title":"The organised crime of kidnapping in Nigeria: A quantitative study of the factors influencing its severity.","volume":"13","author":"C Enemuwe","year":"2026","journal-title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications."},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"139-149","DOI":"10.62154\/ajhcer.2024.016.010423","article-title":"Intelligence gathering and policy formulation for addressing security threats in Nigeria.","volume":"16","author":"A Fagbemi","year":"2024","journal-title":"African Journal of Humanities and Contemporary Education Research."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"481-495","DOI":"10.1016\/S0305-750X(96)00123-4","article-title":"Divergent cultures? When public organizations perform well in developing countries.","volume":"25","author":"M Grindle","year":"1997","journal-title":"World Development."},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"463-482","DOI":"10.1093\/jogss\/ogy024","article-title":"Security governance and the politics of state transformation: Moving from description to explanation.","volume":"3","author":"S Hameiri","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Global Security Studies."},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-37606-2_2","author":"E Hirsch Ballin","year":"2020","journal-title":"The extension of the concept of security."},{"key":"ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780429024177","author":"P Hough","year":"2020","journal-title":"International security studies: Theory and practice."},{"key":"ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511808678","author":"D North","year":"1990","journal-title":"Institutions, institutional change and economic performance."},{"key":"ref16","article-title":"Rising kidnapping incidents in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja: An overview of its threat to safety of lives and property.","volume":"1","author":"C Nwosu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Kashere Journal of Politics and International Relations."},{"key":"ref18","first-page":"137-146","article-title":"Kidnapping and national security in Nigeria.","volume":"4","author":"A Okoli","year":"2014","journal-title":"Research on Humanities and Social Sciences."},{"key":"ref19","first-page":"79-89","article-title":"Intelligence-led policing and kidnapping crimes prevention and control in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.","volume":"2","author":"M Osolafia","year":"2022","journal-title":"European Journal of Science, Innovation and Technology."},{"key":"ref20","article-title":"Security sector mapping report: Structural and institutional mechanisms for security sector oversight in Nigeria.","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226729589.001.0001","author":"B Rothstein","year":"2011","journal-title":"The quality of government: Corruption, social trust, and inequality in international perspective."},{"key":"ref24","first-page":"126-140","article-title":"Corruption, governance failure and the proliferation of kidnapping in Nigeria.","volume":"13","author":"H Sheu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Journal of Management and Social Sciences."},{"key":"ref25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.6084\/m9.figshare.32666499","author":"A Yahaya","year":"2026","journal-title":"Figshare."}],"container-title":["Open Research Africa"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2\/iparadigms","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T09:44:11Z","timestamp":1789033451000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"references-count":19,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/openresafrica.16586.2","relation":{"has-version":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.12688\/openresafrica.16586.1","asserted-by":"subject"}],"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21956\/openresafrica.18105.r36106","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"ISSN":["2752-6925"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2752-6925","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Indexed","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2#article-reports","order":0,"name":"referee-status","label":"Referee status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.21956\/openresafrica.17778.r35225, Vivian Aziengbe, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa, 06 Aug 2026, version 1, 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v1#referee-response-35225","order":0,"name":"referee-response-35225","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Aisha Annie Yahaya<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 25 Aug 2026<\/i>; We thank the reviewer for the positive assessment and helpful suggestions. We have strengthened the Methodology section with full detail on sampling technique, the interview schedule, and the reliability and validity measures applied to both the quantitative and qualitative data, addressing the replicability concern by specifying the research design, population, and analysis software used. Finally, we have proofread the reference list to ensure full consistency with the adopted citation style.","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2#referee-comment-3353","order":1,"name":"referee-comment-3353","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/openresafrica.17778.r35224, Ashibi Jacob, Kampala International University, Kampala, 06 Aug 2026, version 1, 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v1#referee-response-35224","order":2,"name":"referee-response-35224","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Aisha Annie Yahaya<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 25 Aug 2026<\/i>; We thank the reviewer for the constructive feedback and the &quot;approved with reservations&quot; assessment. We have expanded the Methodology section to detail the research design, population, sampling technique, and data collection instruments for both the quantitative incident dataset and the qualitative interviews. We have acknowledged the single-source data limitation directly and clarified how triangulation across the five interview respondents, drawn from three distinct institutional vantage points, supports the dataset's credibility. Source attributions have been added to Tables 1\u20135, and each of the six policy recommendations now specifies the implementing agency responsible.","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2#referee-comment-3354","order":3,"name":"referee-comment-3354","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/openresafrica.18105.r36106, Oluwatoyin Olatundun ILESANMI, Redeemer's University, Ede, 10 Sep 2026, version 2, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/openresearchafrica.org\/articles\/9-40\/v2#referee-response-36106","order":4,"name":"referee-response-36106","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work","order":5,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}