Crowd-funding payment of ransom will worsen kidnapping, FG warns Nigerians

The Federal Government has warned against public crowd-funding to pay ransoms for kidnapped victims, saying it will only worsen the spate of abductions.

Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, gave the warning while speaking with State House Correspondents, yesterday, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.

The warning comes amid reports that Nigerians have raised over N50 million through crowd-funding to pay ransom for the release of the remaining five daughters of Mansoor Al-Kadriya.

It would be recalled that six siblings were abducted from their father’s house in Bwari Council, Abuja, on December 26, 2023, alongside their father.

Although their father was later released to go and raise the ransom, the kidnappers killed one of his daughters, Nabeeha, for failing to raise the said ransom, leaving the remaining five alive.

However, Badaru said that while the government is deeply concerned about kidnappings, paying ransoms through public donations would exacerbate the problem.

“We all know there’s an existing law against payment of ransom. So, it is very sad for people to go over the Internet and radio asking for donations to pay ransom. This will only worsen the situation; it will not help,” Badaru said.

The Defence Minister, therefore, urged Nigerians to refrain from responding to ransom demands publicly, noting that the government’s position is to starve kidnappers of the profits that drive abductions.

“If we stop, over time, kidnapping will not be profitable, and they will stop. It is not easy, though, but that is the law,” he added.

According to him, kidnappings in the suburbs of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are being perpetrated by bandits fleeing military operations in North-West and North-Central zones.

He said that security agencies would work round the clock to track down the bandits and prevent further abductions.

The minister also said investigations were ongoing to establish the cause of the explosion in Ibadan, Oyo State, which killed two persons and wounded about 80 others, as well as destroying several buildings, vehicles and other property.

Badaru said though preliminary findings had shown that the blast might have been caused by explosives owned by illegal miners in the area, the defence ministry is not ruling out other possibilities, such as gas explosion.

“Our team is trying to find out what is the cause. We have seen that report, but the Council has already set up a committee to look into how the control of explosive law is broken and if indeed there are explosives around the area where this incident happened,” the minister said.

He said that the committee was constituted to scrutinise the existing laws regulating movement, storage and handling of explosives across the country.