Abuja-Kaduna train: We’re ready to negotiate with terrorists – Victims’ families Accuse NRC of disobeying president’s directives
Families of the 62 abducted passengers of the AbujaKaduna train have said they are ready to negotiate with the terrorists to secure their release since the federal government seems not ready to help them.
They also urged the government not to resume train services without the rescue of their loved ones.
The families protested in Abuja and Kaduna yesterday where they also addressed the press on their plights. They accused the government of neglect, saying no official had reached out to them with information about the abducted passengers 42 days after the attack. Daily Trust reports that terrorists had on March 28, planted explosives that derailed train AK-9 while on its last lap from Abuja to Kaduna, North West Nigeria. The terrorists killed nine people and abducted over 60 before they later released the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Ali Hassan.
However, while receiving residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Sallah homage at the State House last week, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to set up a situation room for the coordination of the rescue mission of the passengers and a minute-by-minute engagement with the families of the captives.
But the families said one week after the president’s directive no one had reached out to them.
The spokesperson of the families in Kaduna, Dr Abdulfatai Jimoh, said the family members were disappointed with how the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi
Chibuike Amaechi, was handling the tragic situation.
Dr Jimoh said, “Just a few days after 28th March, 2022, Mr Amaechi was seen running around the stadium in Port Harcourt where he declared his intention to become the next President of Nigeria. We had expected Mr Amaechi to be running around as to how to get the abducted passengers rescued; this is highly disappointing.”
In Abuja, the representative of the families, Zahra Aliyu, said despite their hues and cries they had been left in the dark by both the terrorists and the government.
She said the leadership of the
National Assembly had also left them in the cold as it was not forthcoming.
Another spokesperson of the families, Idayat Yusuf, said they were ready to negotiate with the terrorists since the government had no appetite to rescue the abductees.
“We don’t know what they want. They said the government knows their demands and that is the reason they are still keeping our families. But if they are ready to speak with us and make their demands known, we are ready to give them what they want if it is within our powers to see our family members again,” Idayat said.