The bandits who abducted 22 students from Greenfield University, Kaduna State and have killed five of them on Saturday threatened to kill the remaining 17 by Tuesday if the Kaduna State government fails to produce the ransom payment of N100 million and 10 brand new motorcycles.
The bandits also explained that the killed the first five of the students to show the failure of government in Nigeria.
They had invaded the university located along the Abuja-Kaduna highway on April 20 and abducted the students, after killing a security guard.
They then demanded N800 million as ransom. But three days after their demands were not met, they killed three student. Two other were killed in the same manner a few days later, vowing to keep killing the innocent students within an interval of days until their demands are met.
In an interview with the Hausa Service of Voice of America (VOA), a leader of the bandit group who identified himself as Sani Idris Jalingo vowed that if the Kaduna State government or the students’ families fail to meet their ransom demands by Tuesday, all the students will be killed.
Jalingo, who confirmed that his group were holding 17 students, 15 females and two males, among them a grandchild of the late 18th emir of Zazzau, Shehu Idris, identified as Hamza.
The bandit revealed that the families of the students had made a ransom payment of N55 million, but claimed they had used the money to feed the students.
According to transcript of the VOA interview, “You are speaking with the abductors of Greenfield students. We heard the utterances of the Kaduna State Governor that he will not pay ransom to bandits to purchase additional arms.
“He also said he told his family that he will not pay ransom if any of them is kidnapped. So, we want to show that the Nigerian Government has failed that is why we killed the students.
“If they fail to bring N100 million and 10 brand new Honda motorcycles known as Boko Haram by Tuesday, I can assure you they will use trucks to evacuate the bodies of the remaining students.
Asked if he sees himself as a terrorist, Jalingo laughed and said: “I’m nothing but a food seeker.”
The bandit leader warned security agencies not to waste their time planting trackers on the motorcycles, saying his members do not go to cities and therefore arresting them will be difficult.
Two of the abducted students who spoke during the interview also appealed to the government and their parents to take the threats seriously.
One of the students identified as a grandchild of the late 18th Emir of Zazzau, Shehu Idris, called on the government to negotiate with their captors.
“They mean what they say because they have already killed some of us,” said the student simply identified as Idris.
Similarly, Abigail Usman, another student, also pleaded with the government to send the money so that they can regain freedom.
She said the five students killed were taken in their presence to where they were murdered.
“If they don’t get the money, they will kill us all,” she pleaded.
But the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has rejected negotiating or paying ransom to bandits.
