Nigeria denies paying ransom to free school kidnap victims
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Otaria Benjamin- 0
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The Nigerian government says that the army secured the release of more than 200 schoolchildren who were abducted in November 2025. / Reuters
The Nigerian government on Tuesday denied paying ransom to free about 230 children and staff that Boko Haram terrorists snatched from a Catholic school in north central Niger state in November 2025.
The statement came after an AFP report said that the state had paid Boko Haram terrorists a “huge” ransom of millions of dollars to secure the release of the students.
Information Minister Mohammed Idris said freeing the students and staff was a “result of professional intelligence and operational precision.”
“The Federal Government states that these allegations are completely false and baseless, and constitute a disservice to the professionalism and integrity of Nigeria’s security forces and the sacrifices they make daily,” Idris said in a statement.
The St Mary’s coeducational boarding school kidnapping in November was one of Nigeria’s largest mass abductions in history.
SOURCE: AFP
