Kidnapping and hostage taking activities have geometrically increased across the world, taking different forms. These activities for money and other reasons have contributed immensely to the state of insecurity of average Nigerian from within and outside the territory. It is on this note that this paper addresses the trends of kidnapping and hostage taking in Nigeria, its causes, implications and how best to arrest the worrisome situation. Relevant existing body of knowledge were reviewed according to the objectives of the paper. The research design for the paper was explanatory in nature where rational choice theory, routine activity theory and situational crime prevention were adopted to buttress the understanding of the subject matter. Based on the reviewed literature, it was found that the trend of kidnapping and hostage taking in the 21st century Nigeria is on the “high” side thereby needing urgent attention from all stakeholders; Nigerian government, non-governmental organisations, private bodies and all citizens. It is, therefore, recommended that increased effort to fight kidnapping and hostage taking should be made possible by the Nigerian government. This would make the risk of involving in kidnapping related activities higher than the expected benefit; to deter offenders and potential ones from committing such act. Also, capturing the geographical boundary of Nigeria with sophisticated gadget will help reduce the chances of being a victim of kidnapping. These strategies would make kidnapping unattractive to the motivated offender since the opportunity to commit such crime no longer exists.

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This article places land grab in its primeval colonial milieu and investigates how colonial tin mining operation induced human insecurity in colonial Jos, Nigeria. It uses the human insecurity approach to address questions of colonial “control grabbing” – grabbing and controlling of land – in Jos Plateau. Although contemporary research addresses the recent rush for African lands, they have allocated minimal attention to historical details and lessons of colonialism as well as its connection to human insecurity. Through the use of interviews and archival sources, the article investigates how tin mining operations stimulated human insecurity and how British land policies and politics empowered the Hausa and Fulani in Jos Plateau, to accumulate much land and how their actions and inactions provided the incentives for bloody and intractable conflicts in the post-colonial era. The article argues that scholarly analysis of land grab is largely associated with food and biofuel production ignoring the connection with tin exploitation and its legacies. To this end, discourses on land grabs need to allocate adequate attention to natural resources as a stimulant for the phenomenon and why it is a threat to environmental peace. Keywords: Land grabs, human insecurity, land policies and politics, conflicts, Jos Plateau Nigeria.