Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, has said that no ransom was paid to secure the release of kidnapped pupils of LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Speaking at the two-day capacity building of desk officers under the Federal Ministry of Education on the Implementation, Collation, Harmonization and Reportage of Federal Government Presidential Priority Areas/Ministerial Deliverables and Roadmap for the Education Sector on Monday, March 25, Mamman sympathised with the family of a staff member of the school who died in captivity.

He also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and security agencies for ensuring the freedom of the students. Mamman also said they are working towards generating data on all schools in Nigeria irrespective of where they are located.

The Minister said the school data would help the ministry to advise the state governments to move to do the right thing. Mamman added;

“We need to know every single student and teacher in every school in Nigeria because data has eluded us for too long. We need data to know the trends of learning in schools, location of schools, the infrastructure, the ratio of both male and female, out-of-school children and in-school children as well as the conditions of the schools.”