NBS remains offline two weeks after shocking killings data release

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website has remained down and its X account inactive nearly two weeks after the agency published shocking figures of high levels of violence in Nigeria.

The statistics agency reported its site was hacked on December 18, a day after publishing reporting that 614,937 Nigerians were killed and over 2.2 million others kidnapped between May 2023 and April 2024. It said N2.2 trillion paid in ransom.

At a time the government has claimed a reduction in rampant violence especially in the northern states, the figures drew instant criticisms from government supporters. The scale of the number of deaths at peacetime, and the reported ransom amounts also drew scepticism about their accuracy. For context, roughly 500,000 people were killed in Syria over a decade of civil war.

The Council for Foreign Affairs’ Nigeria Security Tracker recorded 98,906 deaths from May 2011 to June 2023, based on press reports—a stark contrast to the NBS figures for a single year.

Similarly, SBM Intelligence, a consultancy, reported 7,568 kidnappings and 1,058 killings in 1,130 incidents between July 2023 and June 2024, with ₦1.048 billion paid in ransom. SBM acknowledged these figures likely undercount cases resolved privately.

“Hacked!”

About 24 hours after the report was released, the NBS reported its website where the report was published had been hacked. A message on the site read “Page hacked”.

“This is to inform the public that the NBS Website has been hacked and we are working to recover it. Please disregard any message or report posted until the website is fully restored. Thank you,” the agency followed up on X, formerly Twitter.

The government has not commented on the report.

The NBS’s website has remained down since then, adding to the growing doubts surrounding the accuracy of the NBS’s findings. The site was unaccesbie on Monday when we checked. Site hackings are typically resolved within hours or days.

Spokesperson Sunday Ichedi said the agency was working on recovering the site. He did not provide further details. “We’re working on it,” he told Pluboard. “You know it was hacked, and we didn’t plan for it. The holiday season has delayed progress.”

He denied that the shutdown was linked to the published data. He also did not explain why the agency had not updated its X account as it usually does.