Nigerians have criticised former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, for mobilising friends to contribute N50 million towards the ransom for the release of the five remaining Mansoor Al-Kadriyar sisters kidnapped in Abuja.

Pantami announced on Sunday via X account that an undisclosed friend volunteered to raise N50 million, following the murder of Nabeeha by bandits.

Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has been under the attacks of bandits as they abducted citizens and demanded ransom from their families.

Vanguard reported that bandits kidnapped six sisters from the same family and killed one of them after N60 million request was not paid.

Netizens on X called out Pantami who said the linkage of National Identification Number (NIN) of Nigerians linked with the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) would be used to track bandits and terrorists.

On his post, Pantami said he did not like the idea of paying ransom to bandits but for the sake of the freedom of the deceased sisters, he spoke to a friend to raise the ransom.

“Alhamdu lil Laah! I am personally not in support of paying ransom to criminals. However, since it becomes clear, we lost our daughter Nabeeha yesterday, and the five remaining daughters have been threatened, as I spoke with the father on the matter yesterday and today.

“Furthermore, I spoke with a friend and a brother who offered to pay the remaining 50 million Naira of the N60m immediately,” Pantami wrote.

Reacting to the post, many netizens faulted him as the NIN-SIM data policy he introduced to check the activities of bandits has not worked, making him to be an ex-government official championing payment of ransom.

@FS_Yusuf_ wrote, “So Pantami is coming to tell us that his friend paid 50M to rescue the kidnapped sisters. So why didn’t they track their kidnappers from the NIN he propagandized during the useless Buhari administration or the BVN of their account number?

“This is how these propagandists and sweet talkers were deceiving Nigerians (especially the north) while terrorists were spreading around the country.”

@firstladyship affirmed, “We’ve established certain truths: Protest is Haram, Muslim Muslim ticket was a scam, No Nigerian is immune to insecurity, Pantami’s NIN was a failed project, Buhari did not tackle the insecurity, Osinbajo did not tackle the Economy, Tinubu is not tackling the Economy, Shettima is not tackling the insecurity and the APC abuse the NW, NC, NE, & SW.”

“It’s a shame that the former Minister of Communications, Prof. Ali Pantami, who threatened us with NIN, was the first person to mobilise N50million ransom for Kidnappers. Now they have raise the ransom To N700 Million after killing 2 more victims,” @hotline_topic posted.

@DemolaRewaju noted, “Normally, Pantami should be invited for questioning for jeopardising national security and safety of lives with that reckless and thoughtless public statement about ransom donation; but the sad reality is that Bola Tinubu is clueless and careless.” (Vanguard)

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