The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2019 general election, Peter Obi, warned against the payment of ransom and granting of amnesty to bandits and kidnappers, saying this will only encourage more criminalities.
Obi stated this in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the presentation of a book: “Made in Aba,” an autobiography of the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja on Monday.
He said: “By paying a ransom, you’re paying people who aren’t productive.
|People are making money without being productive.
“To pay people for going into crime is unacceptable.
“If you’re going to pay kidnappers and grant them amnesty for committing a crime, you’re simply asking everyone to take to crime.”
On why the rate of crime in the country was rising, Obi said it was as a result of failure of the Federal Government to allow power devolution to the federating units.
He said Abaribe’s book spoke to the issue of what life in public office should be.
He said: “We should always have the courage to speak against injustice, falsehood, and most importantly speaking truth to power.
“This is very difficult in our dear country where being so could be seen as an offence, a great offence.
“I know that myself.
“I know what I go through when I speak in public or do any sort of interview.
“You will see people asking you: ‘Where did you get this figure?
“‘How did you come about this?’”