Defence minister Christopher Musa has warned Nigerians against paying ransom to marauding terrorists and bandits in the country, describing it as a criminal offence.

Boko Haram and armed bandits reportedly collected about N8 billion in ransom in one year.

“We are not paying ransom. We don’t encourage it. Anybody who is even paying ransom is committing an offence. It’s not a government policy to pay any ransom to anybody. Anybody doing it is doing it for his own sake,” Mr Musa said in a Channels TV interview on Thursday.

The ransom ban substitutes Section 14 of the original Terrorism (Prevention) Act, criminalising the transfer of funds or payment of ransoms to kidnappers with a minimum of 15 years’ imprisonment upon conviction.

The Senate passed the bill amending the terrorism law on April 27, 2022. Then-President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 into law on May 12, 2022.

According to Mr Musa, security operatives were able to rescue kidnap victims by blocking all the avenues available for kidnappers to escape.

“The funniest thing is, terrorists, too, don’t want to die. If we deploy a drone, you see them scattered and leave everybody (captives). That’s what happens. What we normally do is, once we are able to identify where they are, we block avenues for them.

“Take out the oxygen from them; they’ll die. Terrorists thrive because people sneak to give them food, water and other support. If they don’t have that, they can’t survive,” stated the minister.

The minister commended the Central Bank of Nigeria for helping to track sources explored by terrorists and kidnappers to get money.

“The CBN is doing a lot of work too. If we are able to trace where money is coming from, we’ll be able to track where they are,” Mr Musa said.