Lawmaker representing Niger East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Mohammed Musa has said that the Niger state government paid no ransom to secure release of abducted Islammiya students.
Though some news platforms reported that over N60m and new motorcycles were given as ransom to the bandits, Senator Musa in an interview on Channels Television noted that the Niger State Government has repeatedly said it would never pay ransom to the bandits.
He said; “The Niger State Government has made it very categorically clear and one of the policies of the state government His Excellency initiated, there is no payment of ransom for whatever reasons. I so much agree with him (Governor Abubakar Bello) because the more you give the ransom, the more the trade will continue because they have turned it into a trade. When they approached the government asking for ransom, the government felt it cannot go against its policy.”