The parents of the students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Mando, in the Igabi Local Government Area of the state have declared their intention to call the government’s bluff by negotiating with bandits that abducted their children.
They accused the El-rufai government of being insensitive by insisting that it won’t negotiate with bandits even as their children rot away in the den of their abductors.
This is coming two days after the government had stated it never appointed anybody to negotiate on its behalf with bandits, vowing to prosecute anyone found striking a deal with those it referred to as “criminals”.
But while addressing a press conference on the matter, yesterday, the parents said the government was insensitive to their plight and vowed to negotiate with the bandits for their children’s freedom
Chairman and Secretary of a group formed by the parents, Sam Kambai and Sanni Friday, respectively, spoke on behalf of others at the briefing.
They said, “Today (Monday) makes it 25 dreary and excruciatingly difficult days since our children have been in captivity. We have not received any words of empathy or assurance from government or have we seen any action to inspire confidence that something is being done to secure the safe release of our children.
“For the record, the governor of Kaduna State has never addressed the parents of these students from the first day of the incident until now,”
They added that a government official later told them that the administration would not negotiate with bandits after they organised a protest on 22nd March, 2021.
“We wish to reiterate that we will do everything within our power to ensure that our children do not perish.
“Let us be clear, it is due to the failure of government to live up to its primary responsibility of securing life and property that we have this ugly development in our hands. For government not to do everything to secure the release of the students 25 days after their abduction, and for government to keep the parents in the dark, smacks of gross insensitivity,” they added.
On March 11, 2021, the bandits invaded the school located opposite the Nigerian Defence Academy along the Kaduna International Airport Road and abducted the students.
Days after the abduction, a video went viral showing the students in a dehumanising condition.
In the viral video, a male students appealed to both the State and Federal Government to make efforts to secure their release as their abductors had threatened to kill them.
One of the fathers of the abducted students reportedly died of heart attack after watching the video.
