Minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed on Monday said the kidnapping of students was not peculiar to Nigeria.
During an appearance on Channels Television’s News Night, the minister said the crime is also seen in most developed countries of the world including the United States.
“Even in the most developed countries of this world, school kidnapping takes place. Last year, in the US, we all witnessed three of four school kidnappings, and that is in probably one of the most developed countries in the world,” he said.
“The thing about terrorism is that the terrorists don’t live by your own rules and they are especially interested in soft targets. They know that what is going to get global attention is kidnapping school children.
“We must be careful; we can’t turn all our schools into barracks. What is important is intelligence gathering, surveillance rather than the physical presence of the soldiers or policemen.
“We are dealing with people who don’t think like me and you, we are dealing with people who don’t have any rules of engagement, we are dealing with people whose motivation is completely different from mine and yours. And anywhere in the world, this is how terrorists operate but the most important thing is to learn from what is happening and adapt.”
His statement came in the wake of the abduction of some students and staff of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State.
The minister also insisted that the government would not pay ransom to secure the release of the abductees.
