President Bola Tinubu has declared that his administration would never pay ransom or negotiate with bandits and terrorists across Nigeria.
This was as Tinubu disclosed that some bandits and terrorists demanded the release of their detained members as part of ransom for the release of some abducted Nigerians.
He made this known during his meeting with Oba Rashidi Ladoja, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, and the Oyo State Council of Obas at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to Tinubu: “We refused to negotiate for ransom, these criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested, that was one of their conditions outside of the money they were looking for.
“I said no deal as we are not going to negotiate with criminals and we refuse to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest and we know what they did.
“And in answer to it, you have seen that from eight divisions we are now moving to 12 divisions and to shorten the response time to give the teeth that is needed to defeat terrorism and banditry.”
He emphasised his administration’s plans for state police and strengthening of forest guard, noting that intelligence gathering is key in the fight against terrorism.
“There would be state police and that state police would have guard rail from abuses and you traditional rulers too would have roles to play more,” he added.
I refused to release bandits, terriosts as ransom payment – Tinubu