By our reporter| The Nigerian government met the demands of the bandits who derailed the Abuja-Kaduna bound train in March but the negotiations did not yield the expected result, presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu has said.
Shehu, who made the disclosure on Friday in an interview published by BBC Hausa, said it is wrong to say that nothing has been done to secure the release of all the captives.
“The important thing is that the government, since the occurrence of the incident, has been working very hard. Some are visible, while some are not,” he said.
“It is to the advantage of the relatives and to the country at large to see all the victims are rescued.
“Whoever says the government isn’t doing anything or isn’t making any effort to rescue them perhaps doesn’t know the effort the government is putting in order to rescue the abductees.
“Don’t forget that right from the start of it, the leader of the terrorists demanded that his pregnant wife should be released from captivity.
“The federal government took the woman to the hospital where she gave birth to twins, and after she gave birth, he was shown that both his wife and children were in a good health condition, and then they were handed over to his parents.
“After handing them over, they came up with a different issue that there are about six or seven of their children in Yola, Adamawa, who the government sent a plane to pick up.
“We expected that if we gave them the children, they would release all the victims in their custody. Then, they demanded money.
“So, people should not say the government is doing nothing.”
The Abuja-Kaduna bound train was attacked on March 28, leading to deaths and the abductions of more than 60 passengers.
Many of the abducted passengers have regained their freedom, On Tuesday, however, about 35 passengers remain in the captivity of the bandits.
Many of those released appear to have regained their freedom in exchange for ransoms to the bandits, security experts believe.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with relatives of the victims and ruled out military force as an option in the rescue of the remaining 31 victims of the abduction.
At the meeting at the state house, Abuja, President Buhari assured them that the federal government is doing everything within its powers to ensure their safe return.
‘‘I have been informed that at last count, there remain about 31 people in the hands of the kidnappers, and our determination is to work towards returning these 31 people to their families,” Buhari said.
‘‘It is understandable that emotions typically run high, we have received several suggestions about the deployment of lethal military force in extracting those still being held in captivity.
‘‘This option has indeed been considered and evaluated.
‘‘However, the condition to guarantee a successful outcome and minimize potential collateral damage could not be assured, and therefore that course of action had to be reluctantly discarded.
”My primary concern is to get everyone released safe and unhurt,’’ he said.
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