Malian Men Were Forced to Call Home Pretending to Be Kidnapped

LAFIA — Moussa Diallo thought he was going to Nigeria for work. Instead, he spent four months in a room in Nasarawa State making phone calls he never wanted to make. Traffickers handed him a script and a phone and told him to call his family in Bamako and tell them he had been kidnapped. They monitored every word.

“They told me what to say. They sat next to me. If I deviated they would threaten me. I had to tell my mother I was suffering and needed money to be freed. It was the most painful thing I have ever done,” Moussa said after his rescue by the Nigerian Police Force Intelligence Response Team.

Moussa is one of 30 Malian nationals rescued in coordinated raids on identified hideouts along Barrister Road in Rugan Dakachi, Nasarawa State on May 7, 2026. Thirteen suspects were arrested in the operation. The police said the syndicate forced victims to extort ransoms from their own families by simulating kidnapping over phone calls.

A Sophisticated Fraud

The scheme is a disturbing evolution of traditional trafficking. Instead of simply exploiting victims’ labour, this network monetises their social connections. Each victim is a weapon turned against their own family. The emotional manipulation required to sustain the fraud, forcing sons to make mothers believe they are in mortal danger, is a form of psychological torture.

Police said the network operated across national borders with recruiters in Mali, Senegal, and Niger who lured victims with job promises. Once in Nigeria, victims were transferred to holding facilities where the forced call scheme was implemented. The ransom payments were collected through mobile money and informal transfer networks.

The 30 rescued Malian nationals are being processed for repatriation by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons. NAPTIP said it is working with Malian authorities to provide counselling and reintegration support for the victims when they return home.