The Federal Government has flatly denied paying any ransom or releasing militant commanders to secure the freedom of more than 230 schoolchildren kidnapped from St. Mary’s Catholic Boarding School, Papiri, Niger State, describing the claims as entirely without merit.
Minister of Information Mohammed Idris, who issued the denial on Tuesday, was responding to an AFP dispatch in which three unnamed intelligence sources alleged that Boko Haram militants received payments ranging from N40m per victim to a cumulative N2bn in exchange for the release of the abducted pupils and school workers.
The wire service additionally reported that two senior militant commanders walked free as part of the arrangement, with cash conveyed by helicopter to a Boko Haram field commander stationed in Gwoza, Borno State.
Idris dismissed the helicopter claim as invention. “What is being described, including cash drops to insurgents confirmed across borders, is pure fiction. The DSS has formally described it as fake and laughable,” he said.
He insisted the pupils were freed through methodical intelligence and security operations, noting that official rebuttals had also come from the National Security Adviser’s office, the Department of State Services and the National Assembly’s leadership.
“No ransom changed hands and no militant commander was set free. We will not accept a storyline constructed entirely on faceless, unverifiable sources,” the minister declared.
The government equally faulted the internal logic of the AFP report, arguing that the wide discrepancy in the ransom figures cited betrayed a lack of firsthand knowledge and stripped the allegations of any credible foundation.
The African Democratic Congress found the official response insufficient. Party spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi noted the irony of a government whose own security adviser had publicly branded ransom payments a driver of insecurity, now being accused of making precisely such payments.
“Under the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act of 2022, paying ransom to terrorists is a criminal offence. If these reports are accurate, it would mean the government has quietly been transacting with terror groups while loudly condemning the practice,” Abdullahi charged.
The party demanded transparent answers on whether any form of payment, direct or indirect, was made in connection with the Papiri abduction, and whether individuals held in connection with terrorism were quietly freed during the process.
“Chasing headlines by bowing to criminal demands is not governance. Short-term applause cannot justify the long-term damage to national security,” the ADC cautioned.
The Peoples Democratic Party took an equally forceful position, urging the government to end ransom payments immediately and confront the deepening kidnap-for-ransom industry head-on.
Spokesman Ini Ememobong referenced a recent National Bureau of Statistics survey showing that Nigerians parted with N2.3tn in ransom between May 2023 and April 2024, with close to 2.24 million citizens falling victim to abduction under the present administration.
“These numbers are damning. They tell the story of a government that has lost the plot on security while criminal networks grow richer and bolder,” Ememobong said.
The pupils were abducted on November 21, 2025 in Papiri, Niger State. Some escaped during their ordeal, while others regained freedom weeks later following a process of negotiations coordinated through the office of the National Security Adviser.
