An advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), had berated President Muhammadu Buhari over the release of the remaining 23 kidnapped victims of the Abuja/Kaduna train without arrest of any terrorist. The group challenged President Buhari to give details of the release of 23 remaining kidnapped victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attacked by bandits on March 28, 2022.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, decried that “it is shameful that over 60 train passengers were abducted by terrorists six months ago and the government failed to neutralise or apprehend any of the marauding terrorists who subjected the nation to over six-month pain and agony after killing scores of passengers during the dastardly terrorist attack.”
The group stated that the government has many questions to answer on the Kaduna hostages, saying the government with its shenanigan is forcing Nigerians to believe that the attack which took the lives of many was stage-managed for cheap political points.
HURIWA called for the swift prosecution of the terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mamu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services for weeks after allegedly aiding and abetting terrorist activities, including allegedly facilitating the payment of hundreds of millions of naira as ransom by families of distraught hostages, as accused by the DSS.
The group noted Nigerians were stunned on Wednesday when Usman Yusuf, Secretary of the seven-man Presidential Committee, assembled by the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), General L E O Irabor, announced that the 23 remaining kidnapped train victims had been released.
Yusuf had said, “The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Nigerian Military under the leadership of the CDS who conceived and guided the operation from start to finish.”
The President had expressed satisfaction with the deployment of “both kinetic and non-kinetic processes” that led to the release of the remaining hostages.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko, however, declared: “The regime of President Muhammadu Buhari must think that all Nigerians are fools. Where are the terrorists? Were they issued safe passage and allowed to go with their loot? Who is fooling whom? So, after closing this ‘shop’ shortly after allegedly catching the CASH FOR HOSTAGES’ NEGOTIATOR, where is Sheikh Ahmad Gumi the defender of the hostage takers after his man Tukur Mamu was taken into custody and millions of naira allegedly found in his apartment?
“When is Tukur Mamu going to court? Why is there no trace of the hostage takers who kept these hostages for over six months in the thick forests? How did this ‘committee’ carry out what they now present as seamless ‘release’ or is it ‘rescue’?
“For this government it is the more you look the more you see but the less you understand!
“HURIWA demands clarity on the confusing circumstances surrounding this incident including knowing if the kidnappers were granted safe passage.”