Bandits were paid N250 million by the Nigeria Baptist Convention to secure the release of abducted Bethel School students.
The Nigeria Baptist Convention has stated that it spent N250 million to obtain the return of students kidnapped by terrorists in 2021 from Bethel Baptist College in Kaduna.
According to Tribune, the President of the Nigeria Baptist Convention, Rev Dr Israel Akanji, made the announcement in Gombe on Friday at the First Baptist Church in Gombe at the 2022 International General Workers Conference for the North-East.
Gunmen raided the school operated by the church in Damishi, Kaduna, in the early hours of Monday, July 5, 2021, abducting 121 children.
In light of the number of Nigerians who have died as a result of various acts of banditry, Akanji also rated President Muhammadu Buhari's administration's fight against insecurity as subpar.
"At first, we didn't want to spend money, and we didn't believe in spending any money," he explained. I even stated openly that we would not spend money, but now that we have been forced to spend money, I am also stating openly that we will not spend money.
"When our children went missing for a month and these bandits told us that they were going to start killing our children one by one, we had to choose between having our money in our pockets and our children dying or having our children released to us and losing our money, so we chose to lose the money because the government would not help us."
Whoever becomes Nigeria's next president must be prepared to deal with the country's insecurity. There will be a problem of injustice in the land as long as some people are free to carry firearms and kill people while others are arrested for doing the same.
"Arrest is discriminating, as you can see in Nigeria; you don't need to be informed that people like me will continue to hide and not tell the truth; it is a national embarrassment." At this level, we must admit to ourselves that the nation's uneasiness has been fueled by a high level of impunity.
Source: Sahara reporters