…as terrorists make unclarified demands in viral video
The lives of persons abducted by terrorists who attacked a train with explosives on the Kaduna-Abuja track is now on the line, as their abductors have threatened to kill them any moment soon.
The terrorists said they would kill the captives whose number is still uncertain, if the government did not speedily meet their demands.
They, however, failed, to state the demands, insisting that the federal government of Nigeria knew what they wanted.
The gunmen issued the threat in a video that has gone viral, saying they freed the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, whom they abducted along with the others, ‘because of his old age and in the spirit of Ramadan”.
No fewer than nine persons died when the Kaduna-bound train was attacked 10 days ago. The attackers used explosives, forcing the train to stop before opening gun fire on the passengers.
However, contrary to the terrorists ‘ claim that Hassan was released on compassionate grounds and in deference to the Ramadan fasting season, competent family sources revealed that some ransom was paid.
In the video, one of the masked gunmen said, “We are the people who abducted some people on a train some days back and you can see them. This one here (pointing at Mr Hassan) has been begging us to release him and considering his age and also because of the Ramadan fast, we decided to release him to his relatives,” said one of the gun-toting masked gunmen.
A second gunman who spoke also threatened to kill all the captives if the government did not urgently accede their demands.
“You (government) should know that this is just the beginning of what we’re going to do….. Killing them is not a big deal to us. You know what we want and it’s not money. If it’s money, we’ll not be doing this. So, it’s left to you to hasten and do what we need from you if not, we’ll do what we want to do to them. This is our message,” he said.
When asked to speak, Hassan, who was then in captivity, said the government should quickly meet the demands of the gunmen.
“Peace be upon you all. I want you to know that the bandits have sympathised with me considering my age but I also want you to know that I’ve left a lot of people behind (bandits’ camp) and they need urgent help for them to leave this place. I hope that government should reach out to the leaders of these people so that they can discuss and have the captives released in time,” Hassan said.