The Nigerian government on Tuesday denied paying ransom to free about 230 children and staff that Boko Haram terrorists snatched from a Catholic school in north-central Niger state in November 2025.

The statement came after an AFP report said that the state had paid Boko Haram terrorists a "huge" ransom of millions of dollars to secure the release of the students.

The country's Information Minister Mohammed Idris, however, said freeing the students and staff was a "result of professional intelligence and operational precision."

"The Federal Government states that these allegations are completely false and baseless, and constitute a disservice to the professionalism and integrity of Nigeria’s security forces and the sacrifices they make daily," Information Minister Mohammed Idris said in a statement.

The St Mary's co-educational boarding school kidnapping in November was one of Nigeria's largest mass abductions in history.