Terrorism financing and ransom payments: Just recently the government of my country criminalized payment of ransom to kidnappers and bandits. Anyone that is convicted of ransom payment would be sentenced to 15years imprisonment. But the
government has been accused of hypocrisy; people argue that top government officials secretly paid ransom to secure the release of their loved ones while other victims from poor families were left at the mercy of their abductors. An example is the recent kidnapping of over 61 train passengers and $170,000 was paid secretly for the CEO of the Bank of Agriculture. A
report stated that based on what could be verified, between July 2021 (after the ban on Bitcoin transactions) and June 2022, no fewer than 3,420 people were abducted across my country, an increase of more than 100%. In the ensuing period, $9,806,306.31 was demanded in exchange for the release of captives while a fraction of that sum ($1,126,126.13) was paid as ransom. And most of these funds are paid in cash. An
example is the testimony of one of the notorious bandits’ leaders who carried out the abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls at the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe town in Zamfara State in February 2021 who revealed that the Nigerian government coughed up approximately $102,561 cash before they (the bandits) freed the girls.
The bandits’ leader in an interview with BBC Africa Eye, when asked what they did with the money, simply stated that they used the money to acquire more rifles and other deadly weapons for subsequent operations (
Purchase of small arms and light weapons) I've spoken before about Bitcoin being the scapegoat for issues unrelated to crypto in general -- to reiterate the point: Cryptocurrency doesn't have much to do with terrorism. I'm sure the government can point to specific reports of terrorist groups using crypto to fund terror activity, but those incidents are scarce across the broader spectrum of terrorism. The Taliban currently control an entire country and its resources, for example. Iran, leading state sponsor of terrorism, are currently sharpening their nuclear arenol. Are we really expecting crypto to be the fiscal epicenter of terrorism because some people requested Bitcoin in ransom funds? Should we really lose sight of the bigger picture?
The government just needs to give a palatable excuse to the average citizen without technical knowledge of Bitcoin to justify its curtailment. You'll be shocked to find out how many liberties citizens will voluntarily give away in the name of personal safety.
