TikTok gets blamed for letting suspected bandit post his ransom loot
Posting to 3000 followers on TikTok, the bandit showed off a rifle alongside bundles of ₦1000 notes which is possibly the result of a ransom he had received.
The attention now is ultimately on Nigerian security officials having enough information to arrest if they want, but much of the criticism from online users has been why TikTok allowed a man suspected to be a bandit to post ill-gotten wealth on the Chinese-owned platform.
A security analyst Zagazola Makama on X, after witnessing a clip that showed a man cushioning himself on a mat of ₦1000 notes that he arranged in bundles had questioned his audacity.
Around the man who has up to 3000 followers on TikTok, was a rifle, which enacted in the minds of people that they were staring at one of the raiders that had been kidnapping residents of northern Nigeria and asking their families to recover them in exchange for a ransom.
ALSO READ: How does a Yoruba Ifa priest think people can protect themselves against bandits?
The background of the 32-second clip felt like the loot from many such ransom requests, which have made rural communities poorer and also they fear for their safety, while many Nigerians are now more than ever before reluctant travelling by road.
Audacity: Bandit on Tiktok flaunting and showing off ransom money he collected from his victims, writes Mr Makama in his Monday tweet.
He added that the user of the account has 3000 followers, some of them are bandits who openly show off their [rifles and are dressed] in military or police uniforms.
[The] TikTok platform has given room for insurgents to promote their campaign of terror without being restricted.
Audacity: Bandit on Tiktok flaunting and showing off ransom money he collected from his victims. pic.twitter.com/NDQ6ozNGMy
— Zagazola (@ZagazOlaMakama) March 25, 2024
Over the past weekend in Kaduna State came what was positive news in the eyes of the Kuriga community. On Thursday, 7 March, 137 school pupils and their teacher were abducted by bandits in this area.
When this latest abduction happened, the loved ones of the victims had been bothered about how to get them back home once again. Sadly, when the liberation came, the teacher did not make it as such had died during their group’s captivity.
The federal government confirmed that no ransom was paid for their freedom in a statement after their release on Sunday but it only makes it a rare scenario as cash had to be parted with on most occasions.
In Nigeria, ransom payment in any form has been outlawed but so far no person is known to have been prosecuted for it.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
