There are numbers too large to be allowed to remain rumours.
In Borgu, Niger State, residents say hundreds of people were abducted during coordinated attacks in August. Some estimate about 600. A youth association now says the number may be close to 700.
The authorities have not supplied a verified figure.
One month later, families are still asking the country to count the people it failed to protect.
That should disturb us almost as much as the kidnapping itself.
Counting is not paperwork performed after rescue. It is the beginning of rescue. You identify who is missing, where they lived, who saw them last, their ages, medical conditions and families. You build a record strong enough to resist forgetfulness.
A person who has not been counted is easier for power to misplace.
Nigeria is usually comfortable with large numbers. Billions are budgeted. Thousands of officers are deployed. Committees multiply faster than rabbits with government stationery.
But when citizens disappear, arithmetic suddenly becomes shy.
President Bola Tinubu ordered security agencies to rescue the captives. Niger State officials say agencies have been mobilised. Yet residents protesting in New Bussa still demanded a proper headcount because neither the public nor the families had been given one.
Reuters could not independently verify the residents’ estimates. That uncertainty is precisely the scandal. A nation should not depend on rumours to know how many of its citizens have been carried into forests.
The attack affected more than the missing. Residents said insecurity had restricted access to markets and healthcare. Shops closed during the protest, even on a market day. Fear does not only kidnap people. It kidnaps ordinary life.
Nigeria’s abduction economy is no longer a collection of isolated tragedies. SBM Intelligence recorded 7,825 kidnappings between July 2025 and June 2026, according to an Associated Press report. Ransom payments exceeded $5.8 million.
Kidnapping has become an industry. Government updates still arrive like reluctant charity.
The response must begin with a public, verified register of the missing; named family liaison officers; scheduled progress briefings; and clear responsibility for every search area. Silence is not an operational strategy.
The kidnapped are not statistics.
But refusing to count them does not preserve their humanity. It helps erase it.
A country loses more than people when hundreds vanish without an official number.
It loses the right to call uncertainty an excuse.
Abraham Ikongshul Ashindortiang
Sources
Reuters: Residents protest as hundreds remain captive after mass kidnapping
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