I Discouraged Ransom Payment Until I Became a Victim: Ex-DSS Director Opens Up

• Mike Ejiofor, a one-time director of the DSS, has said he used to discourage families of those who were kidnapped from paying ransom until he became a victim of the scourge
• Ejiofor stated that the spate of kidnappings can still be curtailed but the failure to address the insecurity revolves around insufficient resources
• The former DSS official was reacting to the killings of traditional rulers by suspected abductors in Ekiti and Kwara states as well as the kidnapping epidemic in Abuja, the Nigerian capital city

Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering public journalism.

FCT, Abuja - A former director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, has said he discouraged ransom payment until he became of victim of kidnapping.

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Ejiofor said this in an interview with Vanguard, published on Sunday, February 4.

Ejiofor noted that the government will always discourage people from paying ransom, adding that citizens should secure themselves if the government fails to.

His words:

"Before I became a victim, I had often said people shouldn’t pay ransom. But that notion changed after I became a victim. He who feels it knows it. Unless you are not involved, you will do everything possible including payment of ransom to release your relative."

Legit.ng reports that armed gangs have for more than a decade spread terror through kidnappings for ransom, targeting students, villagers and travellers on highways.

They have also killed thousands of people.

Ransom demands can run into the millions of naira.

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In other cases, the victim is simply killed after his family couldn't raise the ransom.

The attacks have been spread across the country’s six geopolitical zones.

Between 2014 and 2020, there was a slew of school abductions in Nigeria, including the high-profile abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls which made global headlines.

What to read about kidnapping in Nigeria:

• Gunmen demand N100m ransom for 9 kidnapped Ekiti school children
• Police react as gunmen abduct 60 wedding guests in Katsina
• Tension as gunmen kidnap Abuja newspapers distributors’ president

Shehu Sani identifies cause of insecurity in Abuja

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Shehu Sani, a former senator from Kaduna, said the deterioration of security in parts of Abuja is a direct result of the security situation in the states around the federal capital territory (FCT).

Sani, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asserted that Abuja cannot be immune "as long as its neighbours are infected".

Source: Legit.ng