Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has said that the Federal Government fulfilled the demand of the leader of the terrorist group that attacked and kidnaped passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train.
According to Shehu, the Federal Government and the leader of the terrorists entered into a negotiation but while the Federal government fulfilled its part of the bargain, the terrorists failed to fulfill theirs, which was to free all the abducted Kaduna train passengers.
A Kaduna-bound train was attacked by gunmen, with several persons killed, injured, and abducted in March this year.
Protests by relatives of the abducted victims have failed to yield the expected result as the Federal Government has been unable to ensure the rescue of victims.
Those who have been rescued, got their freedom after their family members were said to have paid huge amounts of money as ransom.
Last Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari met with the relatives of the abducted victims in Abuja. During the meeting, he assured them that efforts are on to ensure the safe rescue of the 31 persons said to still be in captivity.
Many Nigerians have been accusing the government of not doing enough to rescue the victims despite the inhuman treatment they are being subjected to.
But in an interview published by BBC Hausa on Friday, Shehu said it was wrong to say that nothing has been done to secure the release of all the captives.
He said, “The important thing is that the government, since the occurrence of the incident, has been working very hard. Some are visible, while some are not.
“It is to the advantage of the relatives and to the country at large to see all the victims are rescued.
“Whoever says the government isn’t doing anything or isn’t making any effort to rescue them perhaps doesn’t know the effort the government is putting in order to rescue the abductees.
“Don’t forget that right from the start of it, the leader of the terrorists demanded that his pregnant wife should be released from captivity.
“The federal government took the woman to the hospital where she gave birth to twins, and after she gave birth, he was shown that both his wife and children were in good health condition, and then they were handed over to his parents.
“After handing them over, they came up with a different issue that there are about six or seven of their children in Yola, Adamawa, who the government sent a plane to pick up.
“We expected that if we gave them the children, they would release all the victims in their custody. Then, they demanded money.
“So, people should not say the government is doing nothing.”