Over 25 million phones stolen in one year – FG

The Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report of the National Bureau of Statistics, a Federal Government agency, shows that Nigeria recorded 25.35 million phone theft cases between May 2023 and April 2024.

According to the report, this was the most common type of crime within the period under review.

The report read, “The number of crimes experienced by individuals in Nigeria was analysed over a period of time. The results show that theft of phones (25,354,417) was the most common crime experienced by individuals, followed by consumer fraud (12,107,210) and assault (8,453,258). However, hijacking of cars (333,349) was the least crime experienced by individuals within the reference period.”

It also noted that most phone theft cases occurred either at home or in a public place, and about 90 per cent of such cases were reported to the police.

Despite the high rate of the incident being reported, only about 11.7 per cent of the reported stolen phones were recovered within this period.

The report noted, “Phone theft is the most common individual crime experienced with a prevalence rate of 13.8 per cent and estimated with 25 million cases in the reference period.

“In terms of location, seven out of phone thefts occurred either at home or in a public place. About 90 per cent of phone thefts were reported to police, out of which 50 per cent of individuals expressed satisfaction with the police response.

“Although, 11.7 per cent of reported stolen phones were recovered.”

The report further showed that about 17.97 million Nigerians experienced phone theft in one year, with about 16.9 million being male and the rest being female.

Also, about four per cent of the affected Nigerians experienced repeated phone theft, according to the report.

Generally, the report noted that the total number of individual crime incidents in Nigeria was estimated at 55.16 million, affecting individuals across various demographics in the country.

It added that most of these incidents were experienced by males, which accounted for 33.59 million of the total crimes, while females experienced a total of 21.58 million crimes.

The report further showed that five per cent of individuals experienced multiple crimes in Nigeria.

Further analysis based on age group showed that individuals aged 45-54 years (7.1 per cent) were mostly affected while 15-24 years (3.4 per cent) were least affected.

The report also noted that multiple victimization was experienced more by the male population (6.6 per cent) than females with 3.7 per cent.

It also noted that the North-West region had the highest incidence of crime, with 14.4 million cases reported, followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million incidents.

In contrast, the South-East region reported the least crime, with 6.18 million incidents.

The report also revealed that rural areas were more affected by crime than urban areas, with 26.53 million crime incidents in rural households compared to 25.36 million in urban areas.

The report also questioned the effectiveness of Nigeria’s security agencies, particularly the police, in responding to emergencies.

Only 33.1 per cent of Nigerians reported that security agencies responded to emergency calls within 30 minutes.

The survey revealed that approximately four out of 10 households interacted with state or local security forces during the survey period, with half of these households contacting the Nigerian Police.

However, satisfaction with police responses was notably low, especially in cases of livestock and crop theft, where only 42.9 per cent and 42.4 per cent of victims expressed satisfaction, respectively.

In many rural areas, local vigilante groups were seen as a more reliable security source.