The National Bureau of Statistics shows that Nigeria recorded 25.35 million phone theft cases between May 2023 and April 2024.
This was the most prevalent type of crime within the period reviewed, according to a report, the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey.
The report noted that the number of crimes experienced by Nigerians was assessed over a period of time, stressing that the outcomes show that theft of phones (25,354,417) was the most common crime experienced by individuals, followed by consumer fraud (12,107,210) and assault (8,453,258).
Car hijacking, with 333,349 cases, was the least reported crime during the reference period.
The report added that most phone theft incidents occurred at home or in public places, with approximately 90% of cases reported to the police.
Despite this high reporting rate, only 11.7% of the stolen phones were recovered during this period.
Additionally, 50% of individuals expressed satisfaction with the police response to phone theft cases, although the recovery rate remained low.
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The report revealed that about 17.97 million Nigerians experienced phone theft in one year, with 16.9 million of them being male and the remainder female.
Of these, about 4% faced repeated incidents of phone theft.
In terms of age groups, individuals aged 45–54 years were the most affected (7.1%), while those aged 15–24 years were the least affected (3.4%).
Regional data showed that the North-West region experienced the highest incidence of crime, with 14.4 million cases, followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million cases. The South-East region reported the lowest number of incidents, at 6.18 million.
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