Prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, says bandits who threatened to kill the remaining students of Greenfield University, Kaduna,have agreed that they will not killed them.
The bandits had recently threatened to kill the students who they abducted in the school on April 18, 2021 if the parents fail to pay a N100 million and ransom in addition to 10 motorcycles.
Speaking on Thursday when parents of the 27 freed students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna state, visited him, Gumi said negotiation was ongoing for the release of the students of the university.
He said, “The talk with the Greenfield University students’ abductors is going on. “You know they threatened to kill all of them after a particular deadline but after talking to them, they are now lowering their bar.“So, we are thankful they have stopped killing. We are still negotiating with them. I hope this Afaka case will also encourage them to know that there is hope in negotiation and release the children.”
Gumi said, “the role myself and former President Olusegun Obasanjo played in the release of the 27 Afaka students is the role of mediators because the fight is not between us and them but between the bandits and the government.
“What we understand is that these people are trying to attack the government by attacking the government institutions and take innocent children.
“Having understood that, we came to the conclusion that this is not a hopeless situation and that we can really go in and negotiate for the release of these children, which we did after so many ups and downs.
“But in the long run, a conclusion was reached and these children are out. So, we are happy that, all of them are out and none was killed.”
