School Abduction: Tinubu Rules Out Ransom Payment.

The Federal Government on Wednesday said it would not pay “a dime” as a ransom for the release of over 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA Primary School at Kuriga, Kaduna State, kidnapped on March 7.

“Mr President reiterated his zero tolerance for the payment of ransom…and Mr President has also directed that no ransom will be paid by the government to any of these criminal elements,” the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told State House correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Idris insisted that the security agencies are “working round the clock” to ensure their release, adding that they will be “brought back to safety.”

His remarks come barely 24 hours after Kaduna-based Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, offered to dialogue with terrorists who abducted at least 280 schoolchildren from Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools in the Chikun Local Government Area of the State.