Caleb Ifeanyi Onah, PBA Journalism Mentee
Five of the freed victims kidnapped by terrorists during the Abuja-Kaduna train attack on March 28, had hours after their release on Tuesday, pleaded with the Nigerian Government to hastily negotiate the release of the remaining victims.
The five freed victims said their plea is predicated on the dire need for food and medical care by those still in captivity given their condition there.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe five victims were identified as Prof. Mustapha Umar Imam, Akibu Lawal; Abubakar Ahmed Rufai,MuktharShu’aibu and Sidi Aminu Sharif.
Adding to the voice of the five, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, the lead negotiator and Media Consultant to Malam Tukur Mamu, said the federal government should hasten negotiation for the release of the remaining victims in captivity because they are in life threatening conditions. He said this while speaking to journalists in Kaduna.
Gumi said, “In a situation where military force cannot work, dialogue would certainly work,” this he said addressing the need for continuous and better dialogue with the terrorists, insisting that there is nothing dialogue and negotiation could not achieve.
In a media interview, one of the released victims, Prof. Mustapha Umar Imam said “I am an Associate Professor of Medical Biochemistry in Usman Danfodio University Sokoto. The situation is really, really dire and terrible.
“Quite frankly the experience I’ve gone through in the last four months is not something I will even wish my enemy to go through. There was barely no food to eat, we were hungry for the last three and half months.
“When I say very hungry, this is an understatement. There were days that we actually ate once. Just imagine there were children just 1 year old, there was a 90-year-old person just feeding once a day. You can imagine that.”
“When you talk about medication, I was literally the Medical Doctor on camp. I was treating the captives as well as the bandits, the Boko Haram members.
“There wasn’t medication to be frank with you. We heard on the radio somebody was claiming they would bring medication whenever it was needed, there wasn’t medication on camp.”
“There was a day a particular lady had malaria, you could treat malaria with N1000, but this lady was literally going into coma because there wasn’t any medication for malaria.
“I personally did not experience any molestation, but some women on camp claimed there were attempts at molestation. But I personally did not experienceany. This happened one to two weeks after we were held captive.”
Prof. Umar Imam called on government to do whatever is possible to rescue the remaining captives who he said, were in a very terrible situation. “They are very hungry and there is no medication for them,” he lamented.
