From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
There is sigh of relief for families of five kidnapped train passengers, who regained freedom from their notorious abductors yesterday, in Kaduna state, after months in captivity.
Recall that Terrorists attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound train in March 2022, have continued to release the kidnapped passengers in batches.
However, in the latest round of release, the 5 victims are: Prof. Mustapha Umar Imam, Akibu Lawal; Abubakar Ahmed Rufai, Mukthar Shu’aibu and Sidi Aminu Sharif. They begged the government to rescue the remaining victims in captivity, because they are in dire need of food and medication.
While confirming their release to journalists in Kaduna, lead negotiator and Media Consultant to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, Malam Tukur Mamu said the government should hasten and negotiate the release of the remaining victims in captivity because they were in a dangerous situation.
He also harped on the importance of dialogue with the terrorists, insisting that there is nothing dialogue and negotiation could not achieve.
” In a situation where military force cannot work, dialogue would certainly work,” he said.
As expected, all the freshly released victims, expressed gratitude to Allah and thanked Tukur Mamu for the role he had played while negotiating with their captors.
Speaking in an interview, Prof. Mustapha Umar Imam said, “I am an Associate Professor of Medical Biochemistry in Usman Danfodio University Sokoto.
Narrating how life was in the terrorists’ den, he said “the situation is really, really dire and terrible. My experience is really terrible, you can see I just finished shedding tears, tears of joy that
“Personally, I did not experience any molestation, but some women on camp claimed there were attempts at molestation. But I personally did not experience any. This happened one to two weeks after we were held captive.”
Prof. Umar Imam called on the government to do whatever is possible to rescue the remaining captives whom he said, were in a very terrible situation.
” They are very hungry and there is no medication for them,” he said.
However, there was no official confirmation of the development from the government, as at press time.
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