Parents of the remaining 16 abducted students of Greenfield University, Kaduna State, have been thrown into further confusion, following the decision of the kidnappers to discontinue further communications with them.
Bandits invaded the school on April 18 and abducted 22 students and staff. They initially demanded ₦800 million Naira for the release of the students. However, to push their demand for ransom, they killed five of the students on two occasions, when negotiations were still ongoing.
Sources said the last time the kidnappers called any of the parents was on April 8, eight days ago, during which they made fresh demand of ₦10 million ransom on each of the 16 students and a staff of the university still being held, which comes to ₦170 million.
Before now, the parents had collectively paid N60 million ransom without getting a result.
The decision of the kidnappers to cut communications for days has been causing great anxiety among the parents, with some of them afraid for the lives of their children.
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‘We don’t know what is happening again. We don’t know what is happening to our children. They (kidnappers) are not talking to us again. You know they have been threatening to kill them if we don’t pay more and suddenly we are not hearing anything again. We are so scared and praying that God will touch their hearts not to harm our children. We are anxiously waiting for them (bandits) to call and say something so that we will know that our children are alive,’ lamented one of the parents yesterday.
The distraught parents are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to help secure the release of the students before ‘something sinister happens to them’.
Speaking in Kaduna yesterday during a special prayer session for the release of the students, spokesman of the parents, Mr. Marcus Zarmai, urged Buhari to use his good offices to secure the release of their children.
According to him, the kidnappers have demanded ₦10 million from each of the parents of the students, making a total of ₦160 million for 16 students.
‘We are worried about their safety. The innocent students had spent 24 days in the kidnappers’ den. Even after, we the parents have collectively paid them over ₦60 million ransom for the release of our children, they failed to release them.
‘We, the parents are appealing to the federal government to assist us to pay the ransom demanded or find any other way to ensure the safe return of our children,‘ Zarmai pleaded.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
