Train Abduction: Professor of Medicine, Four Others, Released

By Adesina Soyooye

Mustapha Umar Imam, a Professor of Medicine at the Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, has been released by the Terrorists who attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound a little over four months ago.

The Professor, who was among those mercilessly whipped a couple of weeks ago, was released alongside four others – Akibu Lawal, Abubakar Ahmed Rufai, Murtha Shu’aibu and Sidi Aminu Sharif.

In an unprecedented attack, on March 28, 2022, the Terrorists ambushed the train, threw explosives at it, immobilized it, and followed up with a statacco of gunfire.

In the ensuing pandemonium, eight passengers were killed and about 68 others, including children and babies and pregnant women abducted.

One of the pregnant women gave birth to a baby girl in captivity. Till date, she and her baby are still in the forest, captives of the terrorists.

The terrorists have been releasing the captives in batches. Two days after the horrifying  flogging of the abductors which they videod and posted, they released eleven of the passengers. And on Tuesday, they released another five.

It is not known how much was paid for the release of the passengers, but the Terrorists have been charging a whopping N100m per released passenger.

38 of the passengers, including women, children and babies are still in captivity.

The Presidency, last week, expressed helplessness over the fate of the passengers. It Saud it knew what to do – a blanket bombing of the forest where they are, for example – but feared the passengers could be killed in the process.