Family members of the victims surrounded the Federal Ministry of Transportation’s Abuja headquarters as early as 8 am, barring employees, including top management personnel, from entering their offices.

With mats spread at the entrance gate, they dared any staff of the ministry to cross the barricade and for over four hours, they kept faith with their threat.

Amid the protest, the Transportation Ministry said efforts were being made with security agencies to rescue the victims, disclosing that negotiators had been in the bush for three weeks over the issue.

A few hours after the protest, the terrorists released four more victims, including Gladys Brumen, Oluwatoyin Ojo, Hassan Lawal, and Pastor Ayodeji Oyewumi, leaving the number of those in captivity at 38.

Victims’ Families Protest, Criticize The First Lady

The First Lady and wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari, was criticized by the families of the victims as well. They claimed that she had neglected her motherly duties in contrast to her predecessor, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, who had risen to the occasion in comparable circumstances a few years before when the Chibok schoolgirls were abducted.

A victim’s family member, Hajia Hadiza Mohammed, disrupted Dr. Magdalene Ajani as she was speaking to the protesters and said that Mrs. Aisha Buhari had neglected her maternal duty of compassion for politics at a time when families were grieving over the fate of their loved ones held captive by terrorists.

Recalling Mrs. Jonathan’s famous lamentation “Chai, there is God o,” when 276 school girls were kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in 2014 by members of the Boko Haram sect, Mrs. Mohammed noted that the then First Lady earned applause for her motherly care, unlike her successor.

She said: “When Patience Jonathan was the First Lady of this country, she came out and she cried and her statement has now become a slogan in this country. What is our First Lady doing? Is she not a mother? Is she not a grandmother? For once, she has never come out to say anything to anybody.

“She has not done anything. She is there canvassing for women to come out and contest (elections). Half of the population that came out to vote in this country was women. She (Aisha) is there sitting wherever she is. She will come back to meet us here. Soldiers come, soldiers go, and barracks remain. My belief is that what goes around comes around.”

Mrs. Mohammed further noted that her little relatives were captured in the recent video released by the gunmen on Sunday, where they were seen flogging their victims.

“Madam (addressing the Permanent Secretary), do you know that those four little kids in the video that were running after their mothers when they were flogging their fathers are my nephews and nieces? Do you know the trauma they will face when they get out of that place? Beating their fathers in their presence and teaching them how to be violent (it’s terrible),” she lamented

Also speaking, another family member of the abductees, Ahmed Ibrahim Aruwa, said the terrorists had reached out to the families demanding N100m each to release the victims.

With 41 members in their den, this brings the total sum of money being demanded to N4.1bn (Four billion, one hundred million naira only).”

‘Aruwa Gives Reason For Storming The Transportation Ministry

The families’ choice to storm the Transportation Ministry yesterday morning was revealed to newsmen by Aruwa.

“We are here to press for the release of our loved ones who are in captivity in the kidnappers’ den in the bush. There was a promise that government will get them released but up till this moment, it has been promises and nothing more.

“We came here because the Transportation Ministry is directly in charge of the train station where our loved ones boarded. The challenge is that they are undergoing tremendous difficulty, to the extent that their lives are being threatened. They are threatening to eliminate them. This is because they feel that nobody is talking on their behalf, especially the government.

“They (terrorists) told us that the government has not done anything to address their demands. We are worried because they are asking for N100m for each person and there are 41 of them left. How can we raise N100m for each of these persons?

“That is why we are here to plead with the minister in charge to talk to the President. We know that if he talks to the President, they will come up with a formula to get our loved ones released,” he added.

In a separate chat with Vanguard, Isah Ibrahim, whose brother is one of those being held, tearfully recounted his ordeal.

“I was supposed to be with my brother on the train that day but I had an urgent thing to do in Abuja so he had to go. Unfortunately, for him and other persons, they were carted away. We have been to the ministry several times but the information is not coming out.

“The government needs to tell us what they are doing. They have to relate with us. We have been seeking an audience. We have come here as individual families, as collective families, and as a group, yet no information till now, no credible information of where they are and when they will be reunited with us,” he noted.

Also speaking, Mohammed Garba, whose relative is in the terrorists’ custody, flayed the Buhari-led administration, saying “’ no government should do this to its people, even if it is one person. We know how things happen all over the world.

“This is not right and we are here and will remain here today, tomorrow in the sunshine and rain. If you saw what happened in that video, I don’t think you would have been able to sleep.”

We’re Working With Security Agencies — Ministry

Dr. Ajani, who succeeded in dousing tension before the arrival of the Minister of Transportation, told the grieving families that the ministry was in close collaboration with the security agencies to ensure the safe release of the 41 persons still in captivity.

She said: “I am part of this and I feel the pain that you people feel because I know what it means to have your relatives in the bush. We are working with the security people. Even up to the weekend, the minister still spoke to me, I mean the new Minister.

“The old ones had a lot of interactions while they were there. For the first release, they were there in Kaduna to see them before they were brought to reunite with their family members. We are in dialogue with them. The government has not forgotten us.

“This morning (yesterday) when they told me what was happening; I called the minister who lost his brother. I know you people have read it in the papers. I plead with you. I am going through this pain with you and I am not talking as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation. I am talking about the fact that my sister is there.”

She was later reminded that the said sister has regained her freedom.

The Permanent Secretary assured the families of the government’s commitment to the release of the victims as soon as possible.

“The negotiators have been in the bush for three weeks. We are in touch with the security agencies,” she added.

Despite pleadings by Dr. Ajani, the protesters stuck to their guns until the minister, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, arrived to personally interface with them.

Dressed in all white, Sambo, whose younger brother, Ja’afaru died last week, pleaded with the families to give him time to settle down in the office and take briefings from the relevant quarters.

“I can assure you that we will stop at nothing until the last person is released. I have not received any briefing, so how can I give you a time frame with which this issue will be over? When I get the briefing, I should be able to tell you ‘give me so-so time.’ I am pleading with you to give me a chance. I have to go and contact the security agencies,” he pleaded.

Speaking on behalf of the entire families, Imran Ahmed told the minister that though they intended to completely ground activities in the Ministry, his intervention and assurances persuaded them to give him a chance.

“We came to sit here until our family members are released. After due consultation, we have decided to give you some breathing space. I hope and believe that we won’t have cause to come here again,” he said.

Terrorists release 4 more kidnapped passengers

Barely 24 hours after a video was released showing how the remaining kidnapped train passengers were being flogged and de-humanized by the terrorists, reports yesterday afternoon indicated that three more kidnapped passengers were released.

According to a BBC Hausa report, a relative of one of the kidnapped victims released, told the BBC, that those released included two men and two ladies.

While disclosing the news to the BBC, the relative said the released victims were on the way to a health facility for medical examination.

At press time last night, there was no detailed explanation of the condition of the victims before they were released.

We were thoroughly beaten, I pity those still in captivity -says Hassan, freed train victim

One of the kidnapped victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, Hassan Uthman, released yesterday by the terrorists, said he pitied those still in captivity because of the thorough beating they received from the terrorist weekend.

Speaking in an interview with BBC HAUSA Service, Uthman thanked Almighty Allah for regaining freedom.

He said last Friday, their relations attempted to rescue them but the government did not allow them to proceed on the journey.

According to him, his relations made a second attempt on Monday and were successful in rescuing three of them from captivity.

“ The government has failed in providing security for life and property. It has failed to rescue us.  I don’t know whether ransom was paid to rescue us,” he said.

He recalled that they were initially sleeping on the bare ground in the thick forest before they were provided mats.

Uthman added:  ‘When the rain started; they erected makeshift shelters for us. They fed us according to their capacity. At times, they even slaughtered cattle and sheep for us.  Even yesterday, they slaughtered a cow and we ate; we thank Allah.

“ Because of the government’s attitude, they were angered and they thoroughly beat us.  We were severely flogged and that was just the beginning. This makes me pity those that are still with them in the forest.’’

Uthman said he couldn’t locate the forest they were taken, adding that since the federal government had failed to rescue them for the past four months, the international community should come in and rescue the remaining victims who were in a pitiable condition in the forest.

Northern Youths Say No Election In Region Without Release of Captives

Meanwhile, as the victims of the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna-bound train marked 120 days in captivity, which was celebrated by the terrorist through a new video released by them in which the victims were being tortured, the Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) has issued a strong warning to the federal government, saying there will be no election in the northern region if the abducted passengers and other kidnaped victims are not released.
Similarly, the youth assembly said communities under the control of the terrorist must also be liberated.
This is just as the Assembly also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the national security adviser, General Babagana Monguno (rtd) for failing in his responsibilities of advising the government on security matters effectively.
In a statement issued in Kaduna and signed by Mohammed Salihu Danlami, Speaker, AYA, the Assembly said it shared the pain and agony of the immediate families and friends of those in captivity and prayed to God to intervene through His supernatural powers and set them free.
The Assembly further said it strongly believes that if the number of monies budgeted for security and defence were deployed for such purposes, “the largely wretched souls in our bushes wouldn’t have been able to withstand our armed forces for just three days.