…Say’s abductors now demand N500m from them
By Gabriel Udeh, Kaduna
The parents of adducted students of College of Forestry and Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna said they have lost hope in Government’s intervention in securing the release of their children.
The 39 students of the college were kidnapped on March 11, but only10 had been released.
Addressing pressmen on Friday in Kaduna, the spokesperson of the parents, Mr Friday Sani said the abductors had resolved in calling them personally requesting ransom amounting to N500million for the release of their children.
“The condition we are in today is very pathetic, and we are calling on the entire world to come to our aid” he said.
“We held a protest and the Kaduna State Government called us, thinking they were going to give us hope that they will rescue our children, but they told us that anybody caught negotiating with bandits will be prosecuted.
“That also led to our second coming out to address the world through the media that it will be better for us to arrested, even though we have already been arrested emotionally since our children abduction.
“We are already under the arrest of Government, some of could not eat and sleep while some of us have developed sickness, so there is no arrest higher than this”, he said.
“We will continue to protest, no matter the number of security forces, the highest is death and we are ready to sacrifice that for our children who have promising futures”, Sani said.
He noted that they were however not afraid of arrest of any kind from the Government.
“if we can negotiate for the release of our children and succeeded and then being arrested afterwards, we will be the most happiest people, it is better for us to be in Government’s detention rather than allow our children to die.
“The fate of our children is what we don’t know and that is the problem we have, the Government has kept silent since the release of ten of the children.
“May be it is because we are no longer talking and pleaded with not to address the media and protest on the street, the Government has remained quite about our abducted children.
“We wouldn’t mind if the Government take credit for the release of the ten students, be it as it may be, we want them to enable the release of others so that we can applaud them the more.
“The government may turn Kaduna into Dubai but if there are no people to benefit from it, then it is a waste of resources, people are not secured, the stories of daily incidents of killings, kidnappings and other forms of crime is disheartening.
“We are pleading with the Government to ensure our children do not lost their lives during course of any action they want to use in securing the release of our children, however their silence” Sani said.
Sani called on the minister of environment, Director General of forestry, United Nations and other Humanitarian Agencies to come for their aid and ensure safe return of their children.
