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A 72-hour ultimatum has been issued to the government by relations of kidnapped victims during the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, who alleged that the government has been insensitive to their plight, two weeks after the incident.
“Since the incident, the Nigerian Railway Corporation is yet to reach out to us on efforts made to rescue the kidnapped victims,” they said.
They, therefore, handed down a 72-hour-ultimatum to ensure the safe rescue of their beloved ones from the den of the terrorists, adding that failure to listen to them, would force them to take a decision on how to rescue their loved ones.
They spoke after their meeting on Monday in Kaduna, saying that they had yet to be contacted by the terrorists for negotiation.
Dr. Abdulfatai Jimoh, who spoke on behalf of the kidnapped relatives, said they were yet to establish contact with their beloved ones or even the hoodlums since the incident on March 28, 2022.
According to him, it is better that the government goes into negotiation with the terrorists as they have demanded in a recent viral video, so as to secure the release of their loved ones alive.
This was not out of place since the federal government seemed incapacitated to protect the lives and property of the citizens, he said.
“This incident happened on the 28 of March, a day or two after, most of had communication without relatives. The kidnappers said that we should be ready that they are going to contact us. And we have not heard any communication from them since then. Since this incident happened, we expected that by now, the government, the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Transportation are supposed to have identified relatives of the victims to tell us what effort they are making or not to rescue our loved ones unhurt.”
“In fact, the primary duty of any government is to protect the lives and property of citizens. We believe our government can do it and it’s capable of doing it, until a few days ago we had been expecting telephone calls from the abductors because that’s what they promised us but when we saw the video, they made it very clear that they want to discuss with the government; that they have something with the government.
“We don’t know what they want from the government. But it’s now an opportunity and a window for the government to rescue our loved ones by opening channels of communication with them(terrorists). This is not out of place. It is done anywhere in the world.
“Even the US, Israel and the most powerful nations of the world, do negotiate when they have issues like this to preserve the lives of their citizens. This, we know our government can do and we are appealing to them to do it. We don’t know what is between them but it is something that can be resolved in the interest of the lives of Nigerian citizens. Life is very sacred even if it is one life that’s involved.
“We are appealing to Nigeria government to do everything within its powers and it is something that’s not beyond the government to do. We are appealing to them to come out to open a channel of discussion with the bandits and get our loved ones out as quickly as possible. We have been in serious anguish over the past 15 days. Many of us have not been sleeping, we have not been sleeping. We are like living corpses. We have decided collectively that we are giving the government 72-hours to do everything that’s necessary to rescue our loved ones,” he said.
Vanguard
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