Journal of Christian Religious Studies

This paper examines the ethical implications of ransom payment to bandits and kidnappers among Christians in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Ransom payment, the transfer of money or valuables demanded by abductors for the release of a victim, has become a routine response to the ransom economy that now sustains organized banditry and kidnapping across Northern Nigeria. Drawing on Conflict Theory, Rational Choice Theory, and Christian ethical thought, the paper situates ransom payment within the structural failures, weak governance, poverty, and institutional atrophy, that have transformed kidnapping into a profit-driven criminal enterprise, while also interrogating the moral reasoning of Christian families and churches who must decide whether to pay. The paper argues that ransom payment occupies a paradoxical ethical position: it is simultaneously an act of compassion grounded in the sanctity of life and the love command, and a coercive transaction that reinforces the very system endangering life. Engaging the sanctity of life argument, the justice-based objection, and consequentialist and deontological frameworks, the paper concludes that ransom payment cannot be affirmed as ethically sound in principle, even though it is understandable as a tragic, situational necessity, and it closes by considering the implications of this finding for Christian moral formation, pastoral guidance, and security policy in Kauru LGA. Among other things, the study recommends that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and denominational bodies should urgently convene a theological task force of ethicists, security practitioners, and pastoral workers to develop a comprehensive, contextually sensitive ethical framework for kidnapping and ransom situations.

Open Full Text (PDF)