A former United States Army Captain, Bish Johnson, has alleged that some individuals are profiting from Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, describing banditry and kidnapping as a commercial enterprise.
Naijaonpoint reports that Johnson made the allegation on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s programme, The Morning Brief.
The former US Army officer spoke against the backdrop of rising insecurity across the country, where many Nigerians, including women and schoolchildren, have been kidnapped or killed.
‘According to Johnson, criminal activities such as banditry and kidnapping have moved beyond random acts of violence and have become organised ventures driven by financial motives.
“Banditry and kidnapping have become a commercialised enterprise where people are making a lot of fortunes over the misfortune of others,” he said.
He added that the scale and coordination of the crimes point to deeper structures behind the violence.
Johnson further alleged that some elements within government institutions are complicit in the security challenges facing the country.
“We are in a country where there is some kind of complicity from within the government.
“I’ve always insisted and maintained that most of the security [challenges] are syndicated operations that involve so many components and so many elements, who are working together for the same purposes, which is commercial reasons,” he added.
The former army captain also linked insecurity to illegal activities and weak border controls.
“Mandatory kidnapping has become a commercialized enterprise where people are making a lot of fortunes over the misfortunes of others,” Johnson said.
He explained that while some criminal activities are “fuelled by unregulated and illicit mining of our mineral resources,” others thrive due to porous borders.
Johnson specifically pointed to border areas linking Niger Republic, Chad and Northern Cameroon as major routes for criminal infiltration.
“So you have influx of all these people, some of the sponsors who may not necessarily be Nigerians,” he said.
“I also believe that there are some foreign sponsors of this crime.”