HURIWA Challenges FG To Prove Ransom Not Paid For Release Of Abducted Kuriga School Children

By Akinwale Kasali

A Civil Rights Advocacy Group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called on the President  Federal Government to clarify why none of the terrorists who abducted the school children in Kaduna was apprehended or killed.

It added that this especially becomes necessary since the Government claims that ransom was not paid for the release of the 137 pupils.

Speaking with State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced that no ransom was paid to free the kidnapped students/pupils of Kuriga.

Challenging the FG to make clarifications on the modalities for the release of the school children, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, in a statement, knocked the Federal Government over what he called propaganda regarding the abduction.

He said: “If the children were actually rescued, can we know why not one of these abductors was killed, wounded or captured by the rescuers?

“We really cannot figure out why the Government is inundating Nigerians with cock- and -bull story of whether ransom was paid or not. If the Government claims they didn’t pay ransom to get the children freed and if these children were rescued as we were told, were they abandoned in one corner of the Zamfara Bush by the terrorists? Why was no single terrorist injured if this was a rescue operation? Why didn’t the soldiers or security agents arrest any of these terrorists?

“Can we find out from the Minister what exactly he wants to achieve by saying that ‘none of the children suffered any harm as they were safely brought back.

“We honestly think that this statement is actually not from the Honourable Minister because it almost reminded us of someone under the spell of Stockholm syndrome. But we are sure that the Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation is in no way under any spell but we wish he can very quickly correct this misconception he has circulated about this satanic kidnapping of so large a group of school children.

“The Honourable Minister should be told that the children indeed suffered massive psychological shock and awe, and emotional distress and truly they underwent series of emotional traumatic episodes and the best thing to do is for these children to be professionally counselled by psychologists so they can overcome those distressing experiences they have just undergone in the hands of terrorists who were armed and ready to kill.

“Nobody should ever have to go through the emotional tortures that these school children were subjected to for days. The truth is that the Government failed in its primary constitutional duty to protect lives of citizens including those of such vulnerable members of our society. To imagine that heads didn’t roll in the security agencies for this abysmal failure of intelligence, is to conclude that this Government is in bed with impunity and lawlessness.”