By Uche Onyeali
National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has announced the restoration of its website after 29 days of being inaccessible due to cyber attack.
AljazirahNigeria recalls that the bureau on December 18, 2024, announced that its website was hacked after it disclosed the amount spent by Nigerians as ransom to secure the release of their abducted loved ones.
NBS website was hacked 24 hours after the bureau published the crime experience and security perception survey.
However, checks showed that though the website has been restored, the controversial crime experience and security perception report is no longer available online.
In the report, the bureau said Nigerians paid N2.23 trillion as ransom in one year between May 2023 and April 2024.
It indicated that an estimated 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded across households during the period.
NBS reported that the North-West recorded the highest crime incidents, estimated to be over 14 million, while the South-East had the least with over six million cases.
The report also showed that the crime incidence in rural areas (26,526,069) was higher than that of urban areas (25,360,963).
After the publication of the survey, media reports claimed that the Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeniran Adeyemi was invited for questioning by the Department of State Services, DSS, on the methodology and data used in the report.
But the Head of Communications, NBS, Ichedi Sunday told the media that the arrest claim was not true.
According to Sunday, the statistician-general was never called by the DSS for interrogation.
