Bandits who abducted 39 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State have reached out to the parents of their victims.
This is a major turn on their earlier stand to only negotiate with the government as Governor Nasir El-Rufai insisted he will not negotiate with them and vowed to prosecute anyone who does.
Reports claim bandits are now reaching out to individual parents, demanding ransom.
Some parents have confirmed that the bandits have in the last few days reached out to them individually to demand ransom and threatened to harm the students if they failed to pay up.
One of the parents said: “They asked my daughter to call me and she was crying and pleading with me to get the ransom and pay otherwise they will kill her.”
Another parent said bandits threatened that she would never see her daughter again unless she and other parents mobilised N500 million for their release.
Meanwhile, ten of the 39 students were last week released in two batches following claims of intensive negotiations with the aid of intermediaries, in which all 39 students were expected to be freed.
