Parents of abducted Islamic school children in Niger State’s Tegina Rafi Local Government Area have allegedly abandoned their children to their abductors due to their inability to meet bandits’ newest demands.
The parents may have abandoned the children because they were unable to raise the N20 million ransom and six Honda motorcycles worth N3 million demanded by the kidnappers.
NEWS DIRECT has also learned that the death of some of the abductees has eroded some parents’ willpower and faith, leading them to believe the children are still alive.
It will be noted that the parents have collectively contributed N55 million in ransoms on two occasions, yet the children remain in the robbers’ nest.
According to recent information on the youngsters, several of them have already perished as a result of their misery.
According to a source close to the parents, many of them got disillusioned and unwilling to continue the rescue operations after failing to obtain the last ransom and learning that four children had died.
“Many of them are emotionally traumatized. They are physically drained especially, having heard that some are already dead. They have been running around to appeal for funds and the funds are not forthcoming,” the source said.
One of the parents, who did not want his name mentioned, told our reporter that the situation is so traumatic and unbearable for him and other parents whose children were abducted.
Asked on the next course of action, the parent replied, “The bandits can have the children forever while we their parents leave their matter in the hands of God.”
”I cannot sleep, nothing in life now gives me joy, especially not knowing if my child is dead or alive. It is so traumatizing. We wanted the government to enter the forest then in Niger state, but some of us refused fearing for the lives of the children. Despite our fears, today some have died. All that we gathered the Bandits collected and still refused to give them back to us. And, we gathered they are not even in Niger state, but far away in Zamfara state forest.”
It will be recalled that the state government announced in mid-June, 2021, through the Secretary to the State Government, SSG Ahmed Matane, that it had finalized plans to confront the bandits in the forest in order to rescue the children, but the parents refused, claiming that attacking would endanger the children’s lives.
