Crowdfunding To Pay Ransom To Bandits Is Criminal – Police

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has condemned the idea of crowdfunding to raise the ransom to secure the release of abducted persons.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, the Force Spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said crowdfunding for ransom kills the morale of its operatives.

Adejobi said families of abducted victims do not carry the police along due to the threat of kidnappers, adding that raising ransom will encourage the kidnapping business.

The force spokesperson said the kidnappers usually manipulate the psyche of families of abducted victims against not informing the police.

He said: “Paying ransom is criminal in Nigeria, according to the provisions of our law. The problem we have in most cases is that families of victims don’t carry security operatives along.

“They get scared because kidnappers always work on their psyche and tell them that “don’t tell security agencies, don’t tell the police, if you do we are going to kill your relations,” and they keep quiet.

“It got to a stage where somebody did crowdfunding on social media. This will not help us in any way. It is criminal. Crowdfunding is not allowed.

“How can you come on social media and tell people to gather money to rescue victims? It kills our morale.”

Naija News reports that bandits, on January 2, abducted a father and his six daughters when they attacked their residence in Zuma 1, Bwari area of Abuja.

After about two weeks in captivity, the bandits killed Nabeeha, one of the girls, over the inability of the family to pay the ransom demanded and reportedly increased the ransom to N100 million and threatened to kill more girls if the money was not paid.

Bank details were shared on various social media platforms to raise the ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

After spending 18 days in captivity, the remaining five girls regained freedom on January 21.