Parents of abducted Niger children decry govt’s seeming inaction

Parents of the abducted Tegina Islamiyya children in Niger State have expressed anger over last week’s claim that the Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Idris, was released without payment of ransom, accusing government of being unfair to them.

The guardians, who alleged that they had been barred from speaking to the media, said the bandits could not have released the commissioner without ransom and still keep their children in captivity despite them allegedly paying over N70 million as ransom.

The parents also said the All Progressives Congress (APC) Zone C chairman, who was abducted a week ago, couldn’t have been released too without any form of payment.

They lamented that their children are still in bondage after nearly three months because they are not high profile cases, alleging that the government had decided to discriminate on “who they pay ransom for and who they leave behind with the bandits.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the parents said: “Our children have been with the bandits for about three months. How come the commissioner only spent few days and was freed? How come the APC chairman was released after one week? And they said they did not pay ransom? Who are they trying to deceive?”
 
Attahiru Fadlu-Rahman Manga, a sympathiser, said the state government needs to do more to get the little kids freed.

On his part, the co-convener, Concerned Shiroro Youth, Yussuf Sani Kokki, said: “Whatever strategy that was used in securing the commissioner’s release should be employed in the overall interest of justice in the case of Tegina Islamiya children, who have so far spent close to three months in captivity.”