We won’t pay ransom to bandits to secure release of those abducted in Niger – FG

MINISTER of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said government will not tolerate any form of criminality, noting that appropriate authorities are on top of the security situation in the country.

Mohammed added that the security challenges bedevilling the country did not happen overnight, stressing that they will not be solved instantly too.

While featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ today, the minister said, “The government has put in place, all along, various strategies to contain banditry, to fight insurgency, to fight kidnapping. Some of these measures are kinetic, some are not kinetic. We didn’t get here overnight and that is why it is difficult to get out one day.

“Criminality in any form will not be tolerated by government. At the same time, government has a duty to look at the underlining causes of some of these criminalities in order to address them.

“I was in Minna with my colleagues, the Ministers of Interior and Police Affairs, the IG, and the National Security Adviser on Wednesday to get a firsthand information on the abduction of these Kagara schoolboys. I can tell you that as at today that the government is on top of the matter.”

The minister also said the  Federal Government won’t pay ransom to secure the release of the students, members of staff, and other people abducted in Niger State.

He said this in reaction to the reports making the rounds on social media that government had paid a huge amount of money to secure the release of the Kagara abductees.

The Governor of Niger, Abubakar Sani Bello, had vowed yesterday that his administration would not pay ransom to secure the release of those abducted in his state.

Bello, however, admitted that negotiations were ongoing to get the abducted back in town, adding that government was interfacing with appropriate authorities over the matter.

But Mohammed in his own case answered in the negative when asked if the Federal government would pay ransom to get the abducted from the den

Mohammed said, “We employ kinetic and non-kinetic (measures), you don’t throwaway invitation to engage but the overall strategy you keep to your chest.”

He added, “Bandits all over the world work with psychology of people. Deliberately, they target women and children because this is what will attract a lot of global outcry. That is exactly what bandits do all over the world.