- Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president of Nigeria, has said that the kidnappers would not be provided a ransom to free the more than 280 pupils who were taken hostage last week. The kidnappers threatened to murder the hostages if they did not get the 1 billion naira ($600,000; £470,000) ransom.
- The youngsters, who range in age from seven to twelve, are held in appalling conditions. To get the kids back, the kidnappers phoned the principal of the school, who was apprehended along with his students. The kids, who have carried very little food or drink with them for hundreds of kilometers to the kidnappers’ headquarters, are in “critical condition”. Due of their extreme poverty, the families are unable to pay the ransom.
- The government is hopeful that the children and others would be returned to their families in safety after Tinubu ordered security personnel to guarantee the children’s release without any payment. Governor of the state of Kaduna, Uba Sani, declared that efforts were being made “to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students.”
- In Nigeria, ransom payments were outlawed in 2022. Although several hostages have been freed in the past after talks with the police, they always maintain that no ransom payments have been made. For years, bandits have preyed on peasants, highway drivers, and schoolchildren in the hopes of receiving ransom money in exchange for their release. There have been hundreds of student abductions in the past three years.
