The defense minister of Nigeria is criticizing people who give money to kidnappers as it only makes the situation worse.
Mohammed Badaru Abubakar said something as the time limit to give money for the release of five sisters passed.
They were taken from their home in Abuja earlier this month, along with their sister who was later killed.
The situation surprised the whole country and people are giving money to a fundraising campaign.
“We feel worried, everyone is ready and waiting. ” We want them to come back home. “They are all just praying,” said Asiya Adamu, who is a cousin to the sisters, in an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday.
The family has not contacted us since the deadline passed.
Six sisters, who were between their early teens and 23 years old, were kidnapped in a place called Bwari in Abuja. Their father, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, was also kidnapped but he was let go to get the money for their release.
His 21-year-old daughter, Nabeeha, who was in her last year of university, was murdered last Friday to make her family pay a large amount of money as ransom.
Mr Abubakar said that giving the kidnappers what they want will make them want more.
“In crowdfunding, there is a law that says you can’t pay ransom. ” It’s very upsetting when people have to ask for money on the internet or radio to pay a ransom. “He said this will only make the situation worse. ”
The minister said that in this situation, the kidnappers asked for more money.
We think we should stop, even though it’s hard. We need to stop giving money for ransom. If we don’t give them any money, they will stop kidnapping people because it’s not worth it for them.
Many people are being kidnapped in Nigeria by criminal gangs who want to make money easily. This has been happening a lot in recent years. The situation has been really bad in the northwest part of the country.
Many people are upset because there is a lot of crime in the capital city. So the police in Abuja have created a special team to fight kidnapping gangs.
Mr Abubakar thinks that gangs were forced to move closer to the capital because of operations against them in other places.
“The security agencies are working very hard to remove them, stop them from moving, and end them completely. “