St. Mary’s Students: FG Dismisses N2bn Ransom Allegation
The federal government yesterday dismissed claims that it paid as much as a N2 billion ransom to secure the release of students of St. Mary’s School, Papiri, Niger State, describing the allegation as false and baseless.
In a statement issued in Abuja by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the government insisted that its longstanding policy against ransom payments remains unchanged.
The government, which was reacting to a report amid a backlash from the opposition, maintained that recent rescue operations were carried out through coordinated security interventions, intelligence gathering and inter-agency collaboration, and not financial inducements.
