Banditry: If you think paying ransom is the way out you’re folly – Obasanjo asks govt to devise another means
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Chief Olusegun_Obasanjo
May 6, 2021
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on the Federal Government to devise a means to deal with kidnappers and bandits heavily in place of the payment of ransom.
The elder statesman gave the recommendation 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,” Obasanjo said.
He added, “Government has always paid ransom. Not only this government, even during (Goodluck) Jonathan (administration). They paid ransom, but they denied it.”
He also stressed the need for leaders to ensure that 2023 births the emergence of a new federation in the nation, warning that the country may slide into what he described as ground dissolution.
insisted that 2023 must mark a watershed for Nigeria.
“The year 2023 should give us the beginning of the emergence of a new federation. Feeling that the rot continues, then we are going to be sliding back to a ground dissolution. God forbid,” he said.
The elder statesman noted that those beating drums of division in the country do not think about the interest of the minority ethnic groups.
He explained that the minority ethnic groups face oppression and extermination should Nigeria be allowed to break as being agitated by some people.
“I believe that if we will get it right in Nigeria, any leader must look at Nigeria with the prism of the diversity of Nigeria. For as long as you look at Nigeria with the prism of your ethnic group, then you are not going anywhere, either your ethnic group or religious group.
“But is there hope? There is hope,” the elder statesman stated.
