A former Director of the Department of State Services, Mike Ejiofor, has described as unfortunate, Wednesday kidnap of some students and staff of Government Science College, Kagara, in Niger State.
He said if the payment of ransom was the only way to secure the release of the victims, the government should explore the alternative but it should ensure to strengthen the security apparatus of the country so that there won’t be any recurrence.
Ejiofor, who spoke on Thursday while featuring onPUNCH Liveprogramme, however, condemned amnesty for repentant bandits.
The security expert said, “It is unthinkable that governments should be going into negotiation with bandits. I shudder when people compare Niger Delta militants with bandits.”

Speaking on the spate of students abductions in Nigeria, Ejiofor said the kidnappers seem bent on discouraging students from acquiring western education.
He said, “It is very unfortunate and sad that we are going through this development in our polity. We can’t continue to hear this every day that innocent children are kidnapped, innocent children who went to acquire knowledge cannot go to school anymore. It is an offence now to go to school and this was exactly what Boko Haram was preaching against that they are against western education.
“What this means is that these people (bandits) are trying to instill fear in people so that by the time they do it two, three times, the students will say they are not going to school. But I believe that the government will take decisive action.”

Asked whether the government should pay ransom to secure the release of the abductees, the former DSS director in Abia, Ogun and Zamfara States said, “My answer is yes and no.”
He explained, “If you are a victim of kidnap or your family member or your ward is involved in kidnap, you will do everything possible to ensure their early release. So, if paying ransom which various state governments had been involved in means getting them out safely, so be it.
“For these people who have already been taken, if ransom is the only way they can come out, why not? But we should strengthen our security against reoccurrence of such incidents so that we don’t go about paying ransom, and making money for people, (so that it does not) becomes a creative franchise.”
The PUNCHhad earlier reported that a student was killed by the bandits when the bandits attacked the school.

Wednesday’s attack happened a few months after bandits kidnapped over 300 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State.
The incident happened in December exactly on the same day the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) visited his home town in Daura, also in Katsina.
The lads were, however, released some six days later but it wasn’t clear whether ransom was paid or not to secure their freedom.
Aside from Kankara and Kagara, non-state actors had also abducted hundreds of secondary school girls from Chibok, in Borno State; and Dapchi in Yobe State. Some of them eventually regained freedom while a number of them were detained in the enclaves of their abductors and sexual abusers.

Insecurity would be brought to an end When there is genuine political will, Not all these propaganda and audio gragra
And I think the change must begin with the government, Nigeria embarked on a journey of no return when the legislative arm became a laughing stock and the judiciary was merely at the mercy of the executive arm