The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s official statistical manager, has confirmed that its official website has been hacked days after it was launched.
In a statement shared via its official X handle on Wednesday, December 18, the Bureau assured Nigerians that the recovery of the website remains its top priority.
The NBS advised that any message or report shared on the website should be ignored until its full recovery which would be announced through appropriate channels.
The statement read: “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.”
It should be recalled that the NBS in a Tuesday statistics revealed that Nigerians affected by kidnapping paid a total of ₦2.23 trillion as ransom to kidnappers between May 2023 and April 2024.
The data, which surfaced in the NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, detailed that 65% of households were affected by kidnapping.
However, due to the failure of security agencies to rescue the kidnapped victims, many families resorted to paying ransoms to secure the release of their loved ones, according to the report.
The report read, “The average amount paid as ransom was ₦2,670,693, with an estimated total ransom of ₦2,231,772,563,507 paid within the reference period.”
The data also showed that kidnapping incidents totaled 2,235,954 across the country with rural areas experiencing a higher rate of kidnappings (1,668,104) compared to urban areas (567,850).
Investors King learned that the attack on the NBS website has raised concerns and doubts about the authenticity of this report which was shared a few hours before the incident.
As of the time of filing this report, the Bureau had yet to announce the recovery of the website.