Parents of abducted Kaduna students wants the government to dialogue with kidnappers

It has been more than two weeks since about 39 students of Federal College Of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna state were abducted by terrorists in their school hostels.

The victim’s parents are calling out to both Federal and the Kaduna state government to hasten the rescue of their wards.

The state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, had after the kidnap promised to rescue the students and prosecute the terrorists without negotiation.

But speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, Sani Friday, a parent of two abducted students
negated the statement of the governor and called on the government to negotiate with the abductors.

This negotiation, Friday argued, will prevent loss of lives.

He cited an earlier promise made by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai’s that the state

“It is the same state government which sometime ago told the entire Kaduna state that if it cost him paying bandits to stop killing the citizens of Kaduna state, he will pay them. But that statement was about a year or two ago,” he said.

“One of the fears we have is if the government feels they can use force to bring out these children, it will be a disastrous move because these bandits are well-equipped. They may decide to eliminate the children if they discover that the government is trying to use aggressive force on them because they are using our children as a shield for themselves.

“The best way we want government to go about this is to first of all, negotiate. Even if they want to put any other security measure on ground, it should be after this.”