30 days after, govt yet to rescue Kaduna train attack hostages
Thirty days after the deadly attack by terrorists on the Kaduna bound train from Abuja, the Nigerian government is yet to take any decisive action to rescue the victims from the custody of their abductors, families of victims have cried out.
Daily Trust could not independently verify whether something is being done by the government as claimed by the presidency and various security agencies.
Daily Trust reports that terrorists, on March 28, ambushed the train heading for Kaduna from the nation’s capital city after bombing its rail track. At least eight persons were reportedly killed and 168 others kidnapped or were declared missing, while some were injured just days after gunmen invaded the Kaduna airport and killed an official on the runway.
The train attack which was the second to occur between Abuja and Kaduna has been attributed to the failure of the authorities to act on intelligence reports.
About two weeks after the attack, the terrorists released a video footage of the abducted travellers and later freed one of them, the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, after a reported N100m ransom.
More pictures surfaced online on Tuesday in which 17 of the distraught hostages, mostly women and children, were shown.
Following the attack, prominent Nigerians, among them Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; chief of defence staff (CDS), Gen Lucky Irabor; chief of army staff (COAS), Lt Gen Farouk Yahaya; inspector general of police (IGP), Usman Alkali, and officials of the Nigerian Railway Cooperation (NRC) visited the scene.
During his visit to the scene, IGP Alkali reportedly directed the immediate deployment of operatives drawn from the Police Mobile Force (PMF), Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Special Forces (SF), Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Special Tactical Squad (STS), as well as air wing operatives in charge of unmanned aerial vehicles of the police.
President Muhammadu Buhari, while reacting to the incident, described it as “callous” and a matter of grave concern.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, Buhari was quoted as saying: “No one should be allowed to hold the country to ransom,” even as he directed the NRC management to speedily repair the damaged tracks and resume normal service without delay.
Daily Trust further reports that Buhari recently issued fresh orders to security chiefs to rescue all persons abducted during the Kaduna train attack and other persons still in captivity across the country.
The national security adviser (NSA),
Babagana Monguno, who made this known after a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential villa, noted that the president felt that enough was not being done by the security agencies despite what had been provided for them.
Meanwhile, family members of the hostages who spoke with Daily Trust expressed disappointment with the authorities over the continued stay of the hostages, saying neither officials of the NRC nor the presidency had visited them one month after the attack.
According to them, they have been left on their own and have been holding meetings under the umbrella of “Families of AbujaKaduna Train Attack”. During such meetings, they said they had been asking why no government official had visited to brief them on government’s effort, if any, in securing the freedom of their loved ones.
It would be recalled that during an earlier meeting about two weeks after the attack, the family members issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the federal government to secure the release of the hostages. They stated that if the government failed to do so they would make a decision on how to rescue their relatives on their own, while crying of psychological torture, trauma and agony as they desperately awaited the safe return of their loved ones.
‘It’s been 30 days of trauma, pains’
Aliyu Mahmud, whose pregnant sister and her husband are among the captives, said it had been 30 days of excruciating pain for the family, especially considering the condition of their pregnant sister that was due for delivery.
Mahmud said, “We are worried because they are exposed to danger. We feel their pains based on the terrible situation they are in. Their aged parents are particularly going through trauma, even as their three children are always asking questions and looking at the door in anticipation of the return of their father and mother.
“The only time I communicated with them was three days after their abduction. We are not happy with the way the government has so far treated this matter; they are not talking to the families of the victims. Even the management of the NRC has not spoken to us.”
He, therefore, appealed to the government to act urgently and secure their release before the Sallah festivity, saying, “There will be a serious vacuum spending the Sallah without our abducted sister and her husband.”
Speaking in the same vein, Idayat Yusuf whose two sisters are among the abductees, said words could not describe what his family had been going through in the last one month. Yusuf said, “It has been a month of trauma, pains and agony. Yesterday when I saw the pictures of my sisters as released on social media, they were not looking normal. In fact, I was just about to break my fast but couldn’t do so again because I was devastated.
“I am appealing to the government, particularly the first lady who is a mother, to do something. The last I heard from her was to invite presidential aspirants to dinner. We are heartbroken,” adding that no government official had so far visited the family since the unfortunate incident. Zara Aliyu, whose brother is among the captives, said it had not been easy for her family as they had been living in fear and anxiety in the past one month. Aliyu said, “With no government official visiting us to give us an update, we have been left in the dark; praying and hoping to see our brother soon. Indeed this is one of the most challenging moments of our lives.
“Our aged parents have become emotionally, mentally and physically down with fear and anxiety. There is nothing forthcoming from the government. The president recently gave an order on the release of the abductees, but we are yet to see anything.
“We are appealing to the government and security agencies to please do something; we are also pleading with the abductors to have mercy.”
Matilda, a housewife whose husband is among the captives, said everything had become stagnated in the family.
She said, “Nobody is talking to us except God. Our two kids keep asking after their dad, but all we tell them are stories. My aged husband’s mother cries every day. Since no government official has deemed it fit to visit us; we have only been meeting under the umbrella of families of adducted victims, but with little or no headway.
“Therefore, we appeal to the government to expedite action on the safe release of our loved ones.”
Do everything to release abductees Dangiwa
Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (Rtd), a former military governor of Kaduna State and chairman of the Movement for Unity and Progress, said yesterday that the government should do more to secure the release of the abducted train passengers.
Col Dangiwa said the pictures of the hostages that were trending on social media were most disturbing, particularly as they showed exhausted and frightened women and children under the most harrowing conditions.
He said, “I appeal to the federal government to do more to secure the immediate release of these innocent victims. I also appeal to the international community, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to assist in the negotiations which will be needed to effect that release.”
For his part, Kabiru Adamu, a security risk management and intelligence specialist, said the greatest lesson from the Kaduna train incident was the ineffectiveness of the implementation of Nigeria’s national disaster or emergency preparedness plan.
Adamu said, “A desktop review of the actions by the relevant first responders in the aftermath of the incident shows how all but a few of the first responder agencies such as the military and the police inadvertently failed in their roles. We were told that the military literally backed some of the victims to get them to safety.
“This failure is reinforced by the fact that there was no establishment of a centre to cater to the needs of the victims or of their families; leaving them to be the ones chasing for solutions.”
While noting that a lot depended on the negotiation skills of the government and the type of pressures and back-channel intelligence measures it introduced, he said the danger of allowing the incident to go unpunished as it appeared at the moment was that it would encourage other non-state actors, including bandits and terrorist groups, to attempt further attacks.
A former commissioner of police of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lawrence Alobi, called on the government to deploy modern technology to locate the terrorists and rescue the captives. Mr Alobi maintained that since the terrorists had been communicating with the families of the hostages, intelligence networks should be expanded.
On his part, a former assistant director at the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, said the terrorists were trying hard to get attention.
Mr Ejoiofor said, “Kaduna is part of Nigeria, and you know terrorists all over the world most times try to get attention; that is why they have concentrated on Kaduna.”