After armed men snatched seven of Abubakar Adam’s 11 children in Nigeria, he sold his car, a parcel of land and cleaned his saving to gather a ransom to free them. He sent his 3 million nairas to the kidnappers, who seized one of the men delivering it and sent back a new demand for more cash.

Reports claim that more than 1,000 students were abducted since December and around 300 children are yet to reach their homes. While President Muhammadu Buhari stated not to pay anything to kidnappers as it will encourage more abductions, the parents are trying their ways to raise ransoms themselves.

An estimate by Lagos-based analysts SBM Intelligence stated that the kidnappers collected more than $18 million in ransom from June 2011 to March 2020 in Nigeria. There are more than 30,000 bandits operating the abduction plans, added the estimate.

Earlier in December 2020, around 344 boys were kidnapped from the Government Science Secondary School in the northwestern state of Katsina during a nighttime raid. However, a week later, they were released but it set off a spate of similar kidnappings in the region.

Experts claim that armed gunmen are motivated by money. The continuous kidnaps have brought more pressure on President Buhari, who promised to tackle insecurity at his inauguration in 2019.

In an interview, Information Minister Lai Mohammed defended the strategy not to pay ransoms. Instead, the government had destroyed multiple bandit camps and tried other approaches to tackle banditry, he added.

Lai Mohammed further declined to give details, as he wanted to maintain secrecy around ongoing operations but said all levels of government are working to free the children.