Nigeria denies paying ransom to secure the release of abducted schoolchildren

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.