“It is absolutely inconceivable that we claim that there is a federal government in Nigeria but abducted Kaduna-Abuja train passengers are still in captivity ten weeks after their abduction.

“It is a monumental show of incompetence and a demonstration that Nigeria does not have a solidly independent National Assembly that citizens are kidnapped by terrorists and for ten Weeks they are still not freed and the government is seen begging armed non state actors to release their hostages as if to say the government has reached its wits end.

“If government which should control the maximum power of controlled violence and coercion is crippled, then the next best option is for them to throw in the towel so more competent persons can take charge. The primary constitutional duty of government as enshrined in Section 14(2) (b) is the protection of lives and property of the citizens.”

With the above empirical summation, leading Civil Rights Advocacy Group- Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) demanded that the Federal Government should either free all hostages held by kidnappers and terrorists within 48 hours or the Senate should begin the impeachment of the President or on the alternative the President Muhammadu Buhari should dismiss his military chiefs to bring in competent officers to salvage the situation of extremely heightened insecurity caused by Insider compromises and abuses within the strategic national security institutions. 

HURIWA has also told President Muhammadu Buhari that his legacies would be tarnished forever should he fail to free the hostages timeously. 

HURIWA recalled that terror bandits had on March 27, 2022, kidnapped over 300 Kaduna-Abuja train passengers after killing eight, and wounding 26 others. Nine days later, the bandits released one of the victims, the Managing-Director of the Nigerian Bank of Agriculture, Mr. Alwan Hassan, on age grounds.

The Rights group through Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko its National Coordinator said news reports say the bandits,  refused to accept monetary ransom, had threatened to kill all the abducted passengers if the federal government refused to free their members in government custody but the Rights group said families of the few hostages already released paid hundreds of millions of Naira as ransom. 

The Rights group said it is a global shame that government failed to free the victims to such a shameful extent that on April 27, 2022, one of the victims, a pregnant woman, reportedly gave birth through the help of a doctor provided by the bandits. Although the abducted train passengers are still in captivity, the federal government, through the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, on May 06, 2022, told Nigerians that Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has completed the repairs of the Abuja-Kaduna rail track bombed by the bandits.

The Rights group quoted the MD of Railways as affirming  that the Abuja-Kaduna train service would resume soon with additional security measures put in place just as the Rights group described this action of Government as irrational   insensitive,  irresponsible,  despicable and reprehensible.

This post has already been read at least422 times!