Journal of Social Theory and Research (JOSTAR) Volume 4 Number 1 (June, 2024) 69 KIDNAPPINGS IN NIGERIA AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING Ochuko Oluku Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria ochukooluku2@gmail.com & Oba Preye Inimiesi Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria Preyeoba@gmail.com Abstract This paper examines the seeming, but superficial intractability of the soaring problem of kidnappings in Nigeria that, together with other associated runaway acts of criminalities, is causing so much insecurity in the country. Relying on a careful analysis of an assemblage of secondary data sourced primarily from journal articles, books, newspapers and the internet, the paper explains why intelligence gathering in Nigeria is not working. It locates the problem in the defective moral and ethical environment, and recommends measures for effective intelligence gathering and utilization in the country. Keywords: Kidnapping, Intelligence, Intelligence Gathering, Nigeria Introduction Though kidnapping and abduction of people have been known to occur in Nigeria since historical times, it was not an issue to be considered a social or security problem till the beginning of the 21 st century. Its ascendance to this later level is one of the despicable manifestations of the ability of abhorrent men to commit serious crimes against their fellow men in the inordinate quest for power and wealth. Kidnapping is a serious crime against humanity and the problem is ubiquitous across the entirety of the Nigerian state (Ezideme, 2014, Dodo, 2010; Abdulkabir, 2017). Article 1(1,2) of the United Nation’s Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances declares any act of enforced disappearances as an offence to human dignity that places the victims outside legal protection and inflicts severe sufferings on them and their families. But kidnapping as a criminal activity is not limited to Nigeria. It is a worldwide problem. In 2006, the UN office on drugs reported that 10,000 people were being kidnapped yearly all over the world. As a result it launched an anti-