Cases of Kidnapping in The Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria: Proffering Architectural and other Security Measures against their Re-occurrences

Abstract

Kidnapping for ransom is a security challenge in Nigeria. Therefore, it became necessary to conduct a research work with regards to kidnapping in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria because of its importance as the capital of the country. The aim of the research was to overview the cases of kidnapping at residential environments in the FCT, in order to generate architectural and other safety guidelines for reducing their future occurrences. The research focused on desktop study as the instrument for data collection; reviewed eight different newspapers in Nigeria with the availability of kidnapping cases in FCT to get information relating to them. Thus, table was employed for the presentation and analyses of the research data and the results were checked via contents analyses technique, in order to validate them. Among the findings is that the door to the toilet where people were hiding during kidnapping attack was opened by the kidnappers by force. Among the recommended guidelines is that every residential building must have a central strong room similar to bank vault with perforations of 0.45 metre high at the top very close to the ceiling level and having 0.3 metre distance between the top of the perforations and the bottom of the ceiling, so that victims can hide themselves there and call the attention of security personnel in case of kidnapping.