Parents of the 29 remaining abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna, have appealed to well meaning Nigerians to help raise fund for the release of their children.
Addressing a press conference on Friday in Kaduna spokesman of the parents Mr. Friday Sanni said the bandits had threatened to marry the female students and kill the males.
“We are calling on Nigerians, non-governmental organisations, charity organisations and donors to come to our aid in donating to rescue our children.
“We don’t know what is happening to them, the bandits have threatened to kill our children if we play with them.
“The other time they said the will marry the female and kill the men and that a time will come when even if we bring the money, the money will not be useful,” Sanni said.
Sanni said since government claimed that security agents recovered the two batches of 10 students earlier released, they should do something about the remaining students.
He said, “The government has said any parent who negotiates with the bandits will be prosecuted but most of the parents are already arrested emotionally, our children today are faced with AK 47 guns on them.
“The faith of our children is what we don’t know, they have spent 36 days without clothing, food, clean drinking water or bathing”.
It was gathered that the bandits were demanding for N300 million for the release of the remaining 29 students.
Sources among the parents said the bandits were earlier given N17 million for the release of all the 39 students following negotiations, “but after they collected the money, they change their mind, saying it was too small and decided to release only 10 of the students.”
The source said negotiations with the bandits were still going on.
The students were abducted in their school on March 11, 2021 at about 11:30pm when the criminals broke into the school.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna state has denied reports that Governor Nasir El-Rufai had threatened to prosecute the parent for negotiating with the bandits.
The governor had vowed that he will not negotiate nor pay ransom to bandits and that anyone who negotiate with bandits on behalf of the state government would be arrested and prosecuted.
In a statement on Friday evening, the commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, regretted that, “contrary to the mischief in some sections of the media, the bond between Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai and the parents of the abducted students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, and other citizens in captivity, is deep empathy amidst spirited efforts to secure them.”
He said “the governor will continue to work hard until banditry is contained, without succumbing to emotional blackmail and gradual politicisation of the unfortunate situation.”
Aruwan noted that, “some section of the media have been reporting the parents responses to purported threat by the governor to prosecute them, which is simply false and deeply mischievous.”
According to him, the government statement in question was a warning to “impostors who have been presenting themselves as government-appointed emmissaries to negotiate with bandits across the state and has nothing to do with the parents or relatives of the abducted students or any other person in captivity.”
He said the state government will not join issues with the parents whose pain is understandable “and with whom we share the common goal of the return of all the abducted students.”
