LINUS CHIBUIKE
THE Federal Government has reiterated that it will not pay ransom for the freedom of students and teachers of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, abducted by bandits last Wednesday.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who spoke on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme, on Saturday, also denied reports that the Government had paid N800million for the release of the victims.
He said the Federal Government was in dialogue with the suspected abductors because it was employing kinetic and non-kinetic measures.
“You don’t throw away invitation to engage, but the overall strategy, you keep to your chest,” he noted.
On the Federal Government’s efforts at resolving the matter, the minister said, “I was in Minna with my colleagues – the Ministers of Interior and Police Affairs, the Inspector General of Police and the National Security Adviser, on Wednesday, to get first hand information on the abduction of these Kagara schoolboys. I can tell you that as at today, the government is on top of the matter.”
He said bandits, all over the world, worked with the psychology of the people and would deliberately target women and children because that would attract global outcry.
“That is exactly what bandits do all over the world. The government has put in place, all along, various strategies to contain banditry, to fight insurgency, to fight kidnapping,” he stressed.
“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,” the minister added.
