Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that people encourage kidnappings when they pay ransom to kidnappers.
Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday when he received members of the Tiv Professionals Group (TPG) led by Professor Zacharys Gundu, at his residence within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
“Some people are still reaching out and hoping that lives can still be saved; but a situation whereby anybody thinks paying ransom is the way out, that person is folly. He is a folly.
“This is because when you pay ransom, you encourage; but if you are not going to pay ransom, you must have the means to deal heavily with it. You must have the stick to deal with it.
“Government has always paid ransom. Not only this government, even during (Goodluck) Jonathan (administration). They paid ransom, but they denied it,” he said.
He called on the Federal Government to develop means to deal with kidnappers and bandits heavily in place of the payment of ransom.
Dateline Nigeria reports that Nigerians are sharply divided over the propriety of paying ransom to kidnappers.
Even among Islamic scholars there is disagreement of the permissibility or otherwise of paying ransom to kidnappers.
While the Deputy Chief Imam of National Mosque Abuja Prof Ibrahim Maqari said it is forbidden in Islam, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi said it is allowed.
