Families of train attack victims to occupy gov’t facilities in Kaduna, Abuja

The relatives and friends of the remaining 50 abducted passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train have threatened to occupy key government facilities in Kaduna and Abuja to demand the rescue of their loved ones.

 They expressed fear of losing their families, especially with reports of snake bites and gunshot injury the captives were said to have suffered.

 Speaking on behalf of the families at a press conference on Thursday, Dr Abdulaziz Atta, whose aged mother and sister are in captivity said they were worried about the state of health of the captives.  

He said, “We read from the media, reports that one of our loved ones, Al-Amin, was shot and that it was an accidental discharge by one of the non-state actors guarding our loved ones, but the key question now is the state of health of the person that is injured.  

“There are no antibiotics, nobody to remove the bullets from his body, just imagine the current situation he will be in the bush. He needs urgent support, if he is not brought out of the bush, we may lose him.

 “To be fair, we are seeing some of the outcomes of the government’s efforts. We have seen 11 of our loved ones that have been released, we know that the government is working on it, but what we are demanding is that they should hasten their release, every single moment they spend in the bush is dangerous.

 “The agents of government that are involved in this negotiation need to do more. What we want is our loved ones out, we have kids as you have heard earlier on as young as three years old and from the feedback we had, these kids are unattended to. We have women injured, we have aged women and men, those people should be brought out.”