CEM REPORT | 3 victims of the March 28 Abuja to Kaduna train attack have been released.
According to report reaching CEM from BBC Hausa, those released included 2 men and a lady, a relative of one of the kidnapped victims released disclosed.
The report added that the victims have been taken for medical examination.
As of the time of this report, there was no detailed explanation of the condition met before the additional 3 victims were released.
Meanwhile, families of the kidnapped victims who beseeched the Federal Ministry of Transportation headquarters, Abuja, have called out the First Lady and Wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari, accusing her of abandoning her motherly role, unlike her predecessor, Patience Jonathan, who rose to the occasion in similar circumstances a few years ago. (Vanguard)
A family member Hadiza Mohammed called out Aisha Buhari for giving up her motherly responsibility of empathy, for politics at a time family members are grieving over the fate of their loved ones held captive by terrorists.
Recalling Jonathan’s famous lamentation “Chai, there is God o,” when 276 school girls were kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state in 2014 by members of Boko Haram Sect, Mohammed noted that the then First Lady earned applause for her motherly care unlike her successor today.
“When Patience Jonathan was the First Lady of this country, she came out and she cried and her statement has now become a slogan in this country. What is our First Lady doing? Is she not a mother? Is she not a grandmother? For once, she has never come out to say anything to anybody. She has not done anything. She is there canvassing for women to come out and contest (elections). Half of the population that came out to vote in this country were women. She (Aisha) is there sitting wherever she is. She will come back to meet us here. Soldiers come, soldiers go, and barracks remain. I believe that what goes around comes around.”
Interjecting while the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Magdalene Ajani was addressing the protesters, she noted that her little relatives were captured in the recent video released by the gunmen on Sunday, where they were seen flogging their victims.
“Madam (addressing the Permanent Secretary), do you know that those four little kids in the video that were running after their mothers when they were flogging their fathers are my nephews and nieces? Do you know the trauma they will face when they get out of that place? Beating their fathers in their presence and teaching them how to be violent (is terrible).”
Also speaking, Mohammed Garba whose relative is in the terrorists’ custody flayed the President Buhari-led administration, saying;
“no government should do this to its people, even if it is one person. We know how things happen all over the world. This is not right and we are here and will remain here today, tomorrow in sunshine and in rain. If you saw what happened in that video, I don’t think you would have been able to sleep.”
Also speaking, another family member of the abductee’s, Ahmed Ibrahim Aruwa said the terrorists have reached out to the families demanding N100m each to release the victims. With 41 members in their den, this brings the total sum of money being demanded to N4.1 bn (Four billion, one hundred million naira only).
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Ajani who succeeded in dousing tension before the arrival of the Minister of Transportation told the grieving families that the Ministry was in close collaboration with the security agencies to ensure the safe release of the 41 persons still in captivity.
“I am part of this and I feel the pain that you people feel because I know what it means to have your relatives in the bush. We are working with the security people. Even up to the weekend, the Hon. Minister still spoke to me, I mean the new Minister. The old ones had a lot of interactions while they were there. For the first release, they were there in Kaduna to see them before they were brought to reunite with their family members. We are in dialogue with them. The government has not forgotten us
“I am going through this pain with you and I am not talking as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation. I am talking about the fact that my sister is there.”
She was later reminded that the said sister has regained her freedom.
The protesters kept their fate for four hours until the Minister arrived.
Its been 120 days since the attack happened.
Recall a CEM report of the release of 7 victims after a ransom of 800 million was paid.
