The Federal Government has restated that it does not pay ransom to secure the release of abducted victims, emphasizing that military pressure and intelligence-led operations remain its primary strategy.
Defence Minister Christopher Musa made the clarification in an interview with BBC Hausa monitored in Kaduna, amid widespread public belief that ransom payments are often made to free kidnapped victims, particularly schoolchildren.
“The federal government does not pay ransom. Even if others do, the federal government does not. We do not pay ransom,” Musa said.
The minister explained that rescued victims are typically freed after sustained security operations, noting that bandits often abandon captives when faced with intense military pressure.
“People only assume that ransom is paid. For example, whenever children are kidnapped from schools, soldiers go into the forest to apply pressure on the bandits so they will flee and abandon the children, and then we recover them,” he stated.
Musa warned that paying ransom only empowers criminal networks and fuels further abductions.
“We oppose it because if it continues, it will encourage people to kidnap for money. That is why we say people should stop paying ransom,” he said.
The minister urged families and communities to report kidnapping incidents promptly to security agencies rather than negotiating directly with abductors. He also cautioned against any form of cooperation with bandits, including selling food or supplies to them.
“If you sell food to them and they give you money, you are eating blood money, and that is not good,” Musa warned.
The minister called for greater public cooperation, stressing that citizen-provided intelligence is crucial in combating banditry. He also cautioned state governments against negotiating peace deals with armed groups, describing such arrangements as deceptive and counterproductive.
Citing Katsina State as an example, Musa said the Federal Government had advised against peace initiatives with bandits there, reaffirming that sustained military action, supported by public cooperation, remains the government’s preferred path to restoring peace nationwide.
