Terrorists who attacked a Kaduna-bound train on March 28, 2022, have released some of the captives.
The terrorists had bombed a section of the rail track, forcing the train to derail after which they opened fire on the passengers, killing nine and abducting 62, including children and the elderly.
According to Daily Trust after spending about 74 days in captivity, six females and five male captives were released on Saturday following intense negotiations, according to the Publisher of Desert Herald, Tukur Mamu who has served as a mediator.
However, he said his sources had confided that the terrorists had released the male captives on health grounds, adding that the released women are among the vulnerable which was part of the agreement reached with the abductors.
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“It was expected initially that all the abducted women will be released in the first batch while negotiations for the release of the remaining victims will continue but the abductors had cut down the number of women they initially agreed to release because the Nigerian Government had demanded that they include those with life threatening injuries among the released
“The released 6 females and 5 males. They include Jessy John, Amina Ba’aba Mohammed, Rashida Yusuf Busari, Hannah Ajewole, Amina Jibril, Najib Mohammed Daiharu, Gaius Gambo, Hassan Aliyu, Peace A. Boy and Danjuma Sa’idu.”
Asked to give the full and exact details of the process that led to the release of the 11 victims, Mamu said that disclosing everything will jeopardize ongoing negotiations to release the remaining victims and may even endanger their safety.
“We have succeeded in building confidence now, we will do everything to sustain it in the interest of the innocent victims that are still in captivity. It’s a painful and frustrating process but it must be done if we are to secure the precious lives of the remaining victims”
“The good news is our collective efforts have succeeded in securing the release of 11 of the victims so far. With the continued support of the FG all the remaining victims will be released soon Insha Allah.”
Our correspondents who reached out to some relatives of the abducted passengers gathered that they have been expecting the release of the captives but said they have not been briefed of the recent development.
Recalls that since the March 28th attack, the terrorists had released two people, one of them, the Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture Alwan Hassan, who was said to have paid about N100million and later, a pregnant woman said to be released out of compassion.
Earlier, the abductors had demanded the release of eight of their children said to have been in the custody of the Federal Government.
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