N2 Trillion Kidnapping Claim: Donald Duke Demands Stronger Action From FG

Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke has lamented that Nigeria has become so desolate that bandits and kidnappers now collect taxes.

The fault lies with the political class for the country’s predicament, he said, adding that it is time for the common man to take the reins of power.

Duke spoke in Abuja during the presentation of Certificates of Return and party flags to the PRP candidates for the 2027 elections, it was reported.

“Our land has become so desolate that bandits, gangsters and kidnappers collect taxes while the government collects excuses,” he said. A report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that about ₦2tn was paid as ransom to kidnappers in 2025 alone, an amount that is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the entire federal budget.

“All this is because our leaders have failed to do what is right when it was right and for whom it was right. The best politics is and always will be doing the right thing, not the expedient thing. And he who does not know what is right has no right to lead others.”

He vowed to build a nation where “farmers come home safely from the fields and where every child has a desk and chair in a decent learning environment.”

Duke, who said the mission of the PRP is to empower ordinary Nigerians and not political elites explained that the elite has had their turn in leadership.

“The scavengers have taken their turn. The common man, the true Nigerian, market woman, farmer and the unemployed graduate are next. And I, Donald Duke, want to be their champion.

“This fight will be hard and bitter, because they will fight back. But we are harder, more resilient, and our cause is just and righteous. “We won our independence from an empire standing together, together we can redeem Nigeria from these scavengers,” he said