Tinubu declares security emergency as kidnappings rock Nigeria

Facing a kidnapping crisis, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of Nigeria's security forces.

He also authorized the recruitment of an additional 20,000 security personnel on top of the 30,000 already approved.

"The police will recruit an additional 20,000 officers, bringing the total to 50,000,” the statement read. “My fellow Nigerians, this is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” it added.

Tinubu ordered the withdrawal of police officers assigned to protect public figures and celebrities and ordered their redeployment.

According to reports, about 100,000 police officers — out of an estimated force of around 371,000 are assigned to guard Nigerian political and public figures.

Tinubu's directive also authorizes forest rangers to undertake offensive operations against armed groups hiding in the forests.

Armed groups locally known as bandits have been blamed for deadly attacks and kidnappings for ransom in Nigeria's central and northern provinces for over a decade.

No armed group has claimed responsibility for last Friday's abduction of 303 children from the remote community of Papiri, the latest in a series of high-profile seizures in search of ransom. Fifty of the students have since escaped.

The rise in mass abductions from schools comes as the Trump administration pressures Nigeria to act against what it calls the persecution of Christians there — a claim Nigeria's government denies. Such abductions had decreased in the past two years.