Lamentation of Parents of Abducted 39 Kaduna Students: Bandits Threaten to Kill, Marry Our Daughters

Parents of the abducted 39 students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State have revealed that the abductors have contacted them individually, demanding the ransom and proposing to marry the females among the abductees.

The abductors also threaten to kill the victims following the refusal of the state government to pay N500 million ransom.

Secretary of the parents’ association, Mr. Friday Sani, pleaded on Friday with Nigerians to come to their aid by raising funds for them to rescue their children.

He said Kaduna State has not only refused to pay the ransom, it has also threatened to prosecute any of them who pays ransom to the bandits.

But Sani said yesterday that they (parents) are not afraid of arrest or prosecution by government.

He asked 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 (abductees). The bandits have threatened to kill our children if we play (sic) with them.

“The other time they (bandits) said they will marry the females and kill the men and that a time will come when even if we bring the money, the money will not be useful.

“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 fate of our children is what we don’t know. They have spent 36 days without clothing, food, clean drinking water or bathing.

“The condition we are in today is very pathetic, and we are calling on the entire world to come to our aid.

“We held a protest and the Kaduna State Government called us, thinking they were going to give us hope that they would 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 be arrested, even though we have already been arrested emotionally since our children’s abduction.

“We are already under the arrest of government. Some of us could not eat or sleep while some of us have developed sickness. So there is no arrest higher than this.

“The highest is death, and we are ready to sacrifice that for our children who have a promising future.

“If we can negotiate for the release of our children and succeed and then being arrested afterwards, we will be 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 10 of the children.

“The government can 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 are disheartening.

“We are pleading with the government to ensure our children do not lose their lives during the course of any action they want to use in securing the release of our children.”