By Newsie ED:-
In his usual candour, the Ex- President, Olusegun Obasanjo has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of paying ransoms to kidnappers.
Recall that President Buhari has publicly spoken against the payment of ransom, and had also warned governors against encouraging bandits and kidnappers through negotiation.
However, the former president, while speaking when he played host to members of Tiv Professional Group (TPG) at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Wednesday, said that it wasn’t only Buhari’s government that had paid ransom to Kidnappers, that even ex President Goodlick Jonathan had equally negotiated with kidnappers, though they deny doing such.
He said, “Government has always paid ransom. Not only this government, even during Jonathan (administration). They paid ransom, but they deny it”
Obasanjo’s claim has not been responded to by neither Buhari nor Jonathan.
He, however, asked the government to develop a means to deal with kidnappers and bandits as against ransom payment.
The former President equally insisted that fighting insecurity to a standstill requires a “carrot and stick” approach.
“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,” he said.
Daily Trust reports that Obasanjo was instrumental to the release of the 27 students abducted from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State.
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