BREAKING: Afaka Students’ Abductors Demand N500m Ransom

The parents of the abducted students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, said they were asked to pay a whopping N500 million ransom before their children would be released from captivity.
Although 10 of the students were released by the gunmen and have since reunited with their respective families, the remaining were still held in the bush since 11 of March 2021.

The parents of the abducted students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, said they were asked to pay a whopping N500 million ransom before their children would be released from captivity.

They also said they have lost hope in government’s intervention in securing the release of their children.

Although 10 of the students were released by the gunmen and have since reunited with their respective families, the remaining were still held in the bush since 11 of March 2021.

During a press conference in Kaduna on Friday, spokesperson of the parents, Mr Friday Sani, said the gunmen have started calling them personally requesting ransom amounting to N500million for the release of their children.

He said, “The condition we are in today is very pathetic, and we are calling on the entire world to come to our aid. We held a protest and the Kaduna State Government called us, thinking they were going to give us hope that they will rescue our children. But they told us that anybody caught negotiating with bandits will be prosecuted.

“That also led to our second coming out to address the world through the media that it will be better for us to be arrested, even though we have already been arrested emotionally since our children’s abduction.

“We are already under the arrest of government, some of us could not eat and sleep while some of us have developed sickness, so there is no arrest higher than this.

“We will continue to protest, no matter the number of security forces, the highest is death and we are ready to sacrifice that for our children who have promising futures.”

According to Vanguard, he, therefore, on behalf of the parents, called on the minister of environment, Director General of forestry, the United Nations and other Humanitarian Agencies to come to their aid and ensure safe rescue of their children.