The families of the kidnapped victims of Abuja-Kaduna train have vowed to embark on street protests and occupy key government facilities in Abuja and Kaduna to drive home their demand for the rescue of their loved ones.
The attack on the Abuja-Kaduna AK-9 train, which led to the killing of nine and abduction of 63 passengers, will clock 100 days on Tuesday.
The kidnapped passengers’ family members told journalist in Kaduna on Thursday that they were worried and scared of losing their families in the terrorists’ captivity especially with reports of snake bites and gunshot injury the captives were said to have suffered.
Spokesman of the families, Dr Abdulaziz Atta, whose aged mother and sister are in the terrorists’ captivity said members of victims’ families would be staging a sit-down and occupy protest at public facilities until their loved ones are rescued.
“We were shocked with reports of snake bites and gunshots. So, we decided that we would be staging a sit-down and occupy protest at public facilities until our loved ones are rescued.
“We read from the media, report that one of our loved ones, Al-Amin was shot and that, it was an accidental discharge by one of the non-state actors guarding our loved ones, but the key question now is the state of health of the person that has gunshot wounds.
“There are no antibiotics, nobody to remove the bullets from his body, just imagine the current situation he will be in the bush. He needs urgent support, if he is not brought out of the bush, we may lose him.
“To be fair, we are seeing some of the outcomes of the government’s efforts. We have seen 11 of our loved ones that have been released, and from the press statement that was released from Garba Shehu on behalf of the President, he made it clear that their children were released to them for us to have our loved ones.
‘We heard it from the highest authority, we know that the government is working on it, yes they are working on it, but what we are demanding is that they should hasten their release, every single moment they spend in the bush is dangerous.
“The agents of government that are involved in this negotiation need to do more, what we want simply is that, we want our loved ones out, we have kids as you have heard earlier on, as young as three years old and from the feedback we had, these kids are unattended to, we have women injured, we have aged women and men, those people should be brought out.”
Atta maintained that by next week Tuesday, which is going to be 100 days that they have been held captive, they are planning to do a physical protest.
