NIGER: We’ll starve abducted students, staff of GSC, Kagara to death – Bandits

*Says, “The person who gave us this business is there among you…”

*Rejects N2.7m ransom offered by parents of the 27 abductees

PROMINENT Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said there was no negotiation between the representatives of the state government and the bandits believed to have kidnapped the students and members of staff of the Government Science College Kagara.

Gumi said this in reaction to a new audio recording he made available to Punch yesterday.

He said, “There was never any negotiation. The bandits we met said they knew the group that took the bus (which carried the victims), but they did not know the ones who took the children. They said they would investigate and call us.”

This position by the Islamic scholar is at odds with that of the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, who claimed during a press conference that negotiations with the bandits were ongoing.

Though the governor has insisted on not paying ransom to secure the release of the students and workers of the college, he assured parents and guardians his administration was negotiating with the bandits that stormed GSC, Kagara and kidnapped students and staff of the  school.

Meanwhile, abductors of the 27 students and 15 workers, including their family members, of GSC in the audio recording have threatened to starve them to death if the ransom they are demanding is not paid on time.

One of the abductors stated this in the audio recording  during a conversation with a negotiator, identified by Gumi as  a top official of the school (not a representative of the government)

He rejected N2.7m offered him as ransom for the 27 abductees.

The bandit stated, “I don’t have food for them. If anybody dies among them, we will tell you where to go and pick the corpse.

“You know these children are hungry. I don’t have food to give them, only water if they are going to die, let them die.”

The negotiator said it would be difficult for him to get the phone numbers of all the parents as requested by the bandits.

The bandit responded that he was aware that many security agents and vehicles had been deployed in Kagara, vowing they would not succeed in rescuing the abductees.

He asked, “You think I don’t know what you people are doing? I can tell you how many security vehicles are in Kagara as we speak.

“It is with the help of the people of the city that intruders can overrun the city. Don’t you know that? The person who gave us this business is there among you. He is there with you. Wherever you go, he is watching you. If you want to do this deal, go ahead. From God we come and to him we will return

“Even if you put together the entire security forces of Nigeria in Kagara, I have eyes all over Kagara. Whichever step you take in Nigeria, I swear, I will know. You people are saying they should not pay us, that if they pay us, we will use to money to buy weapons. With whose money did we buy our weapons? If we don’t have weapons, you will just send security agents to kill us and take the children.”

Appealing to the bandit, the negotiator stated, “They (parents) have agreed to pay N2.7m. Each parent will pay N100,000 .”

But the abductor rejected the offer threatening to unleash terror on Kagara.

The abductor stated, “If I want Kagara to be in peace, it will be in peace. If it is not going to be in peace, it will go in pieces from here until Ilorin. If I die in this process, I have children that I have instructed that if I die that I don’t want Kagara to be peaceful if you don’t do as I say. Even if I die, nobody will come into Kagara.”

He also berated governors, who said they should not be paid ransom.

He added, “Governors are saying we should not be given money because we are going to use it to buy guns; guns that Allah provides and you are boasting  about.”