Muyiwa Adejobi, the Force spokesman said this on Thursday night when he appeared on a Channel TV live programme.
The Nigeria Police Force has described the new trend of crowdfunding of ransom money for kidnap victims on social media as an illegal and punishable offence.
Muyiwa Adejobi, the Force spokesman said this on Thursday night when he appeared on a Channel TV live programme.
He added that police personnel are always demoralised by such actions.
He said, “Paying ransom is criminal in Nigeria, according to the provisions of our law. But the problem we have in most cases is that families of victims in most cases, they don’t carry security operatives along.
“They get scared because kidnappers always work on their psyche, ‘don’t tell security agents, don’t tell the police, if you do, we are going to kill your relations,’ and they kept quiet.
“It got to a stage where somebody did crowdfunding on social media; this will not help us in any way. It is criminal. It is not allowed. It is condemned. Even the Federal Government condemned it.
“Crowdfunding is not allowed. How can you come on social media and be telling people to gather money to go and rescue victims? It kills our morale; it kills the system. We should not encourage that.”
Meanwhile, in January, SaharaReporters reported how a former Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami announced that one of his friends had volunteered to donate the sum of N50 million to add to the funds being contributed to pay ransom demanded by kidnappers for the release of five sisters.
Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, her five sisters and their father were abducted by kidnappers in their residence in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but she (Naheeba) was unfortunately killed by the kidnappers who had demanded a ransom of N60 million for their release.
Some Nigerians whose relatives were kidnapped have started begging for financial assistance on social media.
The Police PPRO, however, said the new trend would encourage many Nigerians to continue to engage in kidnapping because they would realise it is profitable.
“The more we encourage payment of ransom, the more it makes that dirty business lucrative,” he added.