Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, on Friday claimed that the bandits were frustrating the federal government’s efforts to negotiate the release of the remaining victims of the March 28 train incident.
This was as he noted that based on the FG’s efforts, nobody could say that it was ‘not doing anything’ to secure their release.
He pointed out that no one could claim the FG was “not doing anything” to secure their release based on its efforts.
Presidential spokesman during an interview with the BBC Hausa revealed that the bandits’ commander keeping the passengers in captivity had asked the FG to discharge his wife and his pals, However, hostages weren’t released despite FG’s compliance with their demands.
‘Anyone who says that the government is not doing anything or has not done anything does not know what contributions we are making to fight for their freedom. Don’t forget since this thing happened, the leader of the abductors said his concern was to get his pregnant wife out of the security mess she was in.’
‘Nigerian government took her to the hospital, she delivered twins and he was shown his twins’ health alongside his wife and was handed over to his parents thinking that the government had done a well-done job.’
‘After this, they brought a new request that there are about six to seven of his boys in Yola with the hope that if they were released, they will free all abductors in their custody. The outcome was that they said they needed money. So, nobody should say that the government is not doing anything,’ Shehu noted.
According to reports, On Thursday, families of the hostages met with President Muhammadu Buhari, Who mentioned that the possibility of saving the remaining captives have be undermined by the military
‘I have been informed that at last count, there remain about 31 people in the hands of the kidnappers, and our determination is to work towards returning these 31 people to their families.’‘It is understandable that emotions typically run high, we have received several suggestions about the deployment of lethal military force in extracting those still being held in captivity.’‘This option has indeed been considered and evaluated. However, the condition to guarantee a successful outcome and minimize potential collateral damage could not be assured and therefore, that course of action had to be reluctantly discarded. My primary concern is to get everyone released safe and unhurt,’ Buhari explained.
Responding to additional inquiries on the President’s decision to meet with the families of those who were kidnapped from the train, not those who were kidnapped from their villages, Shehu said, ‘Well, these ones have not done anything. They are just passengers in a train, and nonetheless, there is a burden on the government and other things.’