Plateau Communities Confront Kidnap-for-Ransom Crisis 

It was just past 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, when Allwell Nelson was abducted from her family residence in Dong, a community in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA), Plateau State, North Central Nigeria.

She and her niece had just finished bathing and were in their pyjamas, settling down to watch a film before bed, when her brother-in-law burst into the room.

“Armed robbers! Armed robbers! Call the police!” he shouted.

Her heart leapt. She grabbed her phone and called a friend who works at a nearby police station, barely ten minutes away, then tried to alert the neighbours. No one came out. Outside, the attackers struggled to break the front doors.

At the time, Allwell was serving with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Bauchi, northeastern Nigeria. She had returned home to prepare for her wedding, scheduled for the following Saturday.

The attackers, armed with handguns, cutlasses, an axe, and a digger, operated for over 45 minutes, she recounted. They first went to the master bedroom, which was empty. Her brother-in-law had fled through the back door, jumping over the fence to get help. From there, they moved to the children’s room, where the children were sleeping, before arriving at Allwell’s room.

“We were five in my room,” she said. “Me, my sister, my one-year-old niece, my older niece, and my cousin. We ran into the bathroom and locked ourselves in.”

When the attackers found them, they asked after her brother-in-law, insisting they had heard his voice, but they told them that he wasn’t around. After firing a gunshot, the four kidnappers moved the family to the living room and continued questioning them. “They eventually asked my cousin and me to follow them,” Allwell said.

Before leaving, they went to the kitchen and packed foodstuffs such as noodles and garri. One of them never spoke; his face was covered, and he carried the food. They forced the victims through the fence and across a nearby river, pausing at one point to make a phone call.

“The question here is, who were they calling?” she asked. “The person who sent them [informant], or the security agency?”

A spreading pattern across Jos

Dong is a fast-growing neighbourhood, bordering the conflict-hit Bassa Local Government Area and the Jos Wildlife Park. Despite nearby security posts and military checkpoints positioned at both ends of the route into the community, kidnappings have continued. Notably, these measures were already in place as the attacks persisted.

But the pattern seen in Dong is not confined to a single neighbourhood. Across the Jos-Bukuru metropolis, which includes Jos North and Jos South LGAs, similar incidents have emerged, suggesting a far-reaching threat.

On March 24, Sunday Agang, chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), was abducted from his residence in the Faringada area of Jos North. Earlier, in January 2026, three daughters of the Managing Director of the Plateau State Water Board, Apollos Samchi, were abducted during an attack on his residence in Rantya, in Jos South, about a fifteen-minute drive away from Dong. 

In the same month, a retired Nigerian Army colonel was kidnapped in Rukuba Road, not far from Dong, and he was later rescued by security operatives. Barely weeks after Allwell’s abduction, Laven Jacob, a member of the Plateau State House of Assembly, was abducted in Dong. 

These incidents, alongside others that often go unreported, reinforce the sense that kidnapping in Jos has evolved into a citywide crisis rather than a series of isolated events. Between September 2025, when Allwell was abducted, and March 2026, at least four reported kidnapping incidents were recorded in the Jos-Bukuru metropolis. 

Similar incidents stretch back years. For instance, in 2022, a retired naval officer, Hellen Godos, was killed in her home in Dong by kidnappers, who were attempting to abduct her son.

The role of informants

Many of these incidents, residents and officials say, are driven by insiders within the communities themselves.

“The people work with informants,” said Peter, a community elder in Dong who gave only his first name. “They target specific people, who they believe are doing well.” 

He added that during a security meeting held in the community in December 2025, the role of informants was discussed as one of the major factors responsible. “These criminals don’t know the communities; they depend on people from within.”

Generally, kidnappers often rely on information from inside communities to identify their targets, quietly shaping who is taken and when. A recent HumAngle investigation in Kano State found how kidnappers targeted a man after local knowledge of his movements and finances was passed on to criminals. 

In December 2025, troops of the Joint Task Force, Operation ENDURING PEACE, neutralised a suspected kidnapper and arrested three alleged informants who were targeting Dong. In October 2025, the Plateau Police Command also arrested suspected kidnappers, including an informant who supplied foodstuffs to kidnappers in the mountainous Mazah community in Jos North. 

Even so, the sense that local knowledge is being used to enable abductions persists.

Chris Iyama, an influential civil society leader in the state, described a similar pattern after he was abducted on March 8 in front of his residence in Rayfield-Guratopp.

“One of them, I presumed to be the leader of the [kidnappers], called my name and wanted to be sure if my name was Chris. I immediately affirmed. That was the beginning of my ordeal as we walked through different forests, mountains…,” he said.

He added that they took him to a forest somewhere between Bokkos and Barkin Ladi.

Captivity, ransom, and survival

A fact-finding committee set up by the Plateau State government reported that at least 420 communities across 13 local government areas – particularly in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Riyom – were attacked between 2001 and 2025, with more than 11,000 people killed.

“They have been taken over, renamed, and people are living there conveniently on lands they pushed people away to occupy,” said Governor Caleb Mutfwang. “For those who think that the current situation is a farmer-herder issue, let me disabuse your mind from that perception; it is a product of organised crime by malicious elements who do not want peace to reign in the state.”

Allwell’s abduction unfolded within that wider landscape. She and her cousin were taken towards Bassa LGA, another hotspot. In April 2025, terrorists killed 52 people overnight in Zike village, in the Kimakpa/Kwall District of Bassa.

She said they were forced to walk through nearby Dong Kassa towards the Rafiki-Miango axis in Bassa. Along the way, they saw a police truck, and the kidnappers made them squat in the bush. “We trekked for over an hour,” she said.

When they arrived in Bassa, the abductors, who she said did not speak Hausa properly but Fulfulde, led them towards an area where herders kept cattle. At the time, she was serving in the country’s North East, and she said she was able to identify the language. 

“When we got nearby, the people tending the cattle started shining torchlights at us and asked who we were and why we were in their territory,” she said. The kidnappers shot two of the herders who questioned them. “At that point, I felt like I was dying.”

Hannah Silas, a development worker in the region, said incidents like this can feed into cycles of violence. “For instance, when the herders wake up and see someone dead, they will assume it was the locals who killed them, and it will lead to reprisals that should not happen,” she said.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has stated that “bad elements” and criminals have infiltrated their ranks, masquerading as herders to commit kidnappings and violent crimes. Misidentification, in this context, risks reinforcing the very cycles of violence residents are trying to survive.

They continued walking until they reached the captors’ den.

Allwell and her cousin spent more than three nights in captivity. Unlike Chris Iyama, who said he “was beaten black and blue and at some point they wanted to pull the trigger on my head”, Allwell told HumAngle that they were not physically assaulted and were given food, but she described intense fear and psychological pressure.

“I remember I was sick at that time, and one of them went to town to get medication for me,” she recounted. “I couldn’t take it because I was scared.”

The abductors demanded ₦50 million. “I told them that I am a civil servant and I don’t have [such an amount of money],” said Solomon Dansura, her brother-in-law.

As the incident gained attention on social media, NYSC officials visited the family.

“The authorities knew about the incident, but nothing was done,” Allwell said.

While negotiations continued, the abductors threatened to kill her cousin if the ransom was not paid. The family tried to raise funds without assistance from authorities.

A ransom was eventually paid, and they were released on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2025. 

Allwell does not know the exact amount, but the last figure she overheard was about ₦5 million. “The security did not rescue us,” she said.

Chris Iyama also said his family paid a ransom, and that his release was arranged in a forested, mountainous area in Bokkos.

Security gaps and fading trust

For residents, these experiences are rarely reflected in official communication. 

Kidnap-for-ransom remains one of Nigeria’s most persistent security crises. Although ransom payments are illegal, families often treat them as the only viable option, citing slow responses from authorities. In some cases, influential public figures, including government officials, have openly crowdfunded ransom payments.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 people were abducted across nearly 1,000 incidents nationwide, according to SBM Intelligence. Kidnappers demanded about ₦48 billion in ransom during that period, while families paid an estimated ₦2.57 billion. At least 762 people were killed in abduction-related violence.

Earlier in January, the Jos North Local Government Council launched a police outpost in Dong to improve security. 

“This police outpost is not just a structure of blocks and mortar; it is a symbol of our resolve to protect lives and property,” said John Christopher, the local government chairperson, at the launch. “For the people of the Dong community who have endured the trauma of insecurity and kidnapping, this facility represents hope, reassurance, and a renewed sense of safety.”

When HumAngle visited the facility, which is five minutes on foot from the main entrance to Dong, in March, it was deserted. Dry weeds filled the compound, the gate was locked, and no officers were present.

An 8 p.m. curfew imposed in Dong in 2025 was later relaxed in January, according to a security officer at a local church. “But once it is 10 p.m., you will not see people outside,” he said. “Some of the local hunters, who protect the community, recently engaged in a gun battle and killed a suspect, so the incidents have reduced.”

Even with that, some residents say they still feel unsafe.