Wife to one of the captives of the train attack of March 28, Mrs Maltida Kabir has said that the 87 days of her husband’s absence and in kidnappers’ den has been hell for her and their children.
Speaking in tears yesterday in Kaduna when families of the abducted victims address the press and begged government to intensify efforts to rescue their loved ones unharmed, she said, for the past 87 days, she rarely sleeps and think always what to tell the children when they asked, when will daddy return?
“For the past 87 days since about 63 passengers of the train attack were kidnapped including my husband, it has not been funny at all. The children kept asking, when will daddy come back?
“We were relieved when 11 people were released the last time with the hope that the rest will be released until we started hearing that some of them are suffering from snake bites and scorpion stings.
“We are appealing to government to speed up efforts for their release, as it is now, we don’t sleep. We are also appealing to government and spirited individuals to come to our aide, it is us today and it could be anybody tomorrow,” she stressed.
Earlier, the leaders and relatives of the Abuja-Kaduna AK9 train abducted passengers at the press conference pleaded with the federal government to intensify efforts to secure the release of the remaining 50 abductees while expressing gratitude for the efforts so far.
Leaders of the group, Dr Abdulfatai Jimoh and Ba’aba Muhammad noted that, “ today, the 23rd of June, 2022 is the 87th day, only 3 days short of 3 months, since 63 Nigerians were abducted in the Abuja- Kaduna AK9 train attack which left 9 people dead and scores injured.
“Since this dark day of 28th March, 2022 only 11 people out of the abducted citizens have been reunited with their families leaving behind 50 innocent Nigerians in the hands of their abductors under horrible conditions of living”.
They expressed gladness with the news of President Muhammadu Buhari giving fresh orders to security chiefs to spare no efforts in freeing the remaining 50 hostages alive and in the shortest time possible, adding that. “ Our joy will know no bounds if this presidential directive is given accelerated action that will result in a positive outcome.
“It is necessary to restate that our family members still in captivity are living under horrendous conditions, many of them are sick with poor medical care in addition to poor nutrition, environmental hazards and more frighteningly living in perpetual fear of threat to life”.
While commending efforts that saw to the release of the 11 hostages, he said, “We learnt that negotiations are ongoing for the second phase and we hope and pray that this phase will be final phase to bring this sad incident to a joyful closure with the release of the remaining 59 captives and in the shortest time possible.”
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