By Charles Awuzie

The k1dnapping of Prince Eniola Ojajuni is one of the most embarrassing events I’ve witnessed as a Nigerian.

Yes the k1dnappers used his mobile device to send out pictures and videos of the victim via his WhatsApp and Facebook accounts.

Some people said that the K1dnappers were not smart for doing so. Some fly-by-night cybersecurity experts believe that the police could easily extract metadata from the images shared on WhatsApp and facebook.

So I’ve decided to critique, analyse and offer useful insights that may help the family and also security agencies. Please forward this message to the right people after reading.

Firstly, you should know that those holding Prince Eniola hostage are fellow Nigerians – they know the weaknesses of our security systems and the broader Nigerian society.
They know that they can even do a 24/7 K1dnapping Reality Show broadcasted Live across social media platforms showing them dehumanising their victims and Nigerians will simply enter Prayer Mode and start declaring “Oh God of Israel, bring him back” while cursing the k1dnappers. The family of the victim will join early morning online prayers and comment his name in the comment section. Then the Security agencies will monitor comments of those who would criticise them for doing nothing to bring the k1dnappers to book. Social media users will visit the profile of the victim and if he ever spoke up against Very Dark Man, then the k1dnappers will become their hero. Las las, if he manages to escape, one prophet will emerge to testify how he was prophetically guiding angels to his location to release him.
Nigeria is a massive trage-comic theatre: it leaves you crying so bitterly while laughing hysterically. Nothing is data driven. Nothing is scientifically based. Everything is left to chance and god. Chance and god have proven to screw anything left to it by those who do not draw a line between miracles and magic, faith and work, the Lord and the Law.

For the fly-by-night cybersecurity experts who are in every comment section and even in the victim’s wife’s Inbox claiming that GPS coordinates, Timestamps and device data used for geolocation tracking can be retrieved from the images shared on Facebook and WhatsApp, you are uninformed about the security measures implemented by Meta to protect user privacy which makes it almost impossible to use any picture shared on these platforms to extract geolocation data.

First of all, when you upload any image to facebook, the algorithm strips the image of its original metadata which includes GPS coordinates etc then it embeds its own tracking codes and assigns it with a unique identifier on Meta’s CDN. So the image downloaded from the news feed has been manipulated by Facebook’s Image Processing Engines. I personally analysed the ICC profile of the victim’s uploaded image to strengthen this position.

However, law enforcement can subpoena Facebook to immediately share the original image stored on its internal image storage servers which they can use to extract GPS coordinates. However, this process is longer and can only be made easier through a pre-case partnership between Meta and the security agencies. I advised a key Nigerian security agency on the need for this partnership the last time I was in Abuja.

For those of you saying the k1dnappers are not smart, well, now you know that many of those k1dnappers are smarter than you think. They have this information and even work with trained hackers who advise them. They know why they chose Facebook and WhatsApp – they could have chosen other methods which could have easily revealed metadata information but they chose platforms which literally strips every image of metadata details.

For the psychologists and criminologists here – I have magnified the victim’s left eye so you can help explain to the doubting thomases who still think this is a stunt understand that this image couldn’t have been faked. From the victim’s facial expression, posture, and body language, it’s obvious that this person is in a heightened emotional state of fear, confusion, and defiance. He is supporting his body with his left hand subconsciously suggesting that the bvllet did actually penetrate his right back side.

What can we do from here?

The security agencies should use cell site analysis and triangulation to quickly determine the approximate location and move swiftly to rescue the victim before it is too late.

Lastly, the Nigerian Government should allow Private Cybersecurity Companies like mine (Gemsbok Technologies ) to own IMSI catchers and offer Security Intelligence As A Service (SIaaS) to both private and government controlled security services. The government can’t do this alone. We need Public Private Partnerships to Solve Security Problems in Nigeria.

My name is Charles Awuzie and I am founder of a Cybersecurity Training and Services company based in Johannesburg.