Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has stated that the ransom being paid by the relatives of abd#cted victims are a major contributor to terr#rism in Nigeria.
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Speaking on Channels TV on Monday, July 11, Shehu stated that kidn@pping would continue until Nigerians stop paying ransoms and allow the security agents to do their job.
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He said, “You are mentioning all of these about kidn@ppers and the people that have been taken and the President even in his Sallah message mentioned an appeal he was making to fellow citizens to expose them (the criminals), tell the security agencies where they are and sometimes you also can sympathise with the family members in that highly emotive situation.
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The first priority for most of them is to get their family back and they are willing to pay, and they’ve paid and these payments, whether anybody likes it or not, will continue to fuel terr#rism, we have to learn from experiences in other lands that when you pay, you are fueling terr#rism, you are fuelling the hij@ck and kidnapping of fellow citizens and it will go on and on until simply people call off the bluff and be prepared to allow law enforcement.
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I’m a Nigerian, I have family members that live in the society, I don’t come from the moon, I feel it and I have never in any way suggested that there’s no hardship in the country, I have never in any place or position indicated that there’s no criminality.”
