We are not afraid of arrest, parents of abducted students tell El-Rufai

Parents of the remaining 29 students abducted from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka in Kaduna State have dared Governor Nasir El-Rufai to arrest them for negotiating with bandits if it means it will lead to the release of their children.

The parents, while urging Nigerians to help raise funds for the release of their children, told journalists in Kaduna that the bandits are threatening to kill the remaining male students and marry off the female students unless they pay N500 million as ransom.

• Gunmen kill six, injure three in Plateau
• Bandits threatening to keep our daughters as wives – parents of Kaduna students

“We have already been emotionally arrested for the past one month, we are under the arrest because some of us cannot eat, some cannot sleep, some of us have developed sickness as a result of this and so there is no arrest that is more than that,” the parents said through their spokesman, Friday Sanni in Kaduna on Friday.

At a press conference in the college premises, Sanni, flanked by other parents, said: “For the past 36 days, we have been under emotional arrest and we want the government to know that we are not afraid of any arrest.

“If I can negotiate for the release of my children today and they are in my house and I’m arrested and detained, I think I will be one of the happiest persons and so also my co-parents here.

“Where our children are, they are faced with AK47 but in governments detention, I know they will not kill me.

“In the end, they will try me and maybe one way or the other, I may be released.

“But the fate of our children being released today is what we don’t know,” he said.

Daily Trust reports that 39 students had been abducted from their college dormitories on March 11th 2020 in which 10 of the students; comprising of seven male and three females were released last week.

However, the bandits last week began reaching out to parents of the remaining students to demand ransom after Governor Nasir El-Rufai maintained that he would not negotiate with bandits and threatened to prosecute anyone who does.

Other parents, who spoke with our correspondent, reiterated Sanni’s words and stressed that they have no choice but to negotiate with the bandits and raise money to pay the ransom for the release of their children.

“We are calling on Nigerians, non-governmental organisations, charity organisations and donors to come to our aid in donating to rescue our children.

“We don’t know what is happening to them, the bandits have threatened to kill our children if we play with them.

“The other time, they said they will marry the female and kill the men and that a time will come when even if we bring the money, the money will not be useful,” Sanni said.