Nigeria's president has ordered security forces not to pay ransom for the release of more than 280 schoolboys kidnapped by gunmen last week, the country's information minister said Wednesday after a council of ministers.
According to relatives of the victims, the kidnappers demanded a large payment for the return of the students kidnapped on March 7 from their school in the village of Kuriga, in the state of Kaduna (northwest).
But Information Minister Mohammed Idris told reporters on Wednesday that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had specifically asked security forces searching for the students to ensure that
"not a penny is paid as ransom."
.
A law was introduced in 2022 that prohibits handing over money to kidnappers, but in recent years hundreds of schoolchildren and students have been kidnapped en masse, including in Kaduna.
“It would be a crime for us, parents of the children, to negotiate payment with the kidnappers, even if we had the money to pay.
In any case, we have no chance of raising the amount they are asking for
,” explained Muhammad Kabir, a member of the family of children kidnapped in Kuriga.
Frequent mass kidnappings in Nigeria
Kidnapping victims are usually released shortly afterward, following negotiations with local authorities, although state officials still deny that ransoms were paid.
Typically, families and entire villages pool their savings to pay the ransoms, because they say they have little trust in the authorities and feel they have no choice.
Authorities say troops are searching forests to rescue the students, but families say few details have been shared with them.
The information minister said several countries, including the United States, had offered help, but the government was
"considering"
the proposals.
The United States has not confirmed this information or provided details.
Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways.
Two weeks ago, more than 100 women and children were kidnapped from a camp for displaced people in the state of Borno (north-east) by suspected jihadists and on Saturday, at least 15 students from an Islamic school in the Sokoto State (northwest) were kidnapped by armed men, according to local sources.
On Tuesday, armed men kidnapped dozens of people in a village about 150 kilometers from Kuriga, according to two local officials and a UN source.
The wave of large-scale kidnappings challenges the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which has promised to tackle insecurity.