Train attack: Families of abducted passengers plan street protests

As the attack on the Abuja–Kaduna AK-9 train, which led to the killing of nine and abduction of 63 passengers would be clocking 100 days on Tuesday,

Families of the Kaduna abducted train passengers have vowed to embark on street protests as well as to occupy government facilities in Abuja and Kaduna as a way of demanding the immediate release of the remaining 50 passengers still in captivity.

They made their intention known in Kaduna while addressing newsmen on Thursday.

One of their leaders who spoke on behalf of the family, Dr Abdulaziz Atta, said they are worried and afraid of losing their family members who are still with the terrorists.

“We were shocked with reports of snake bites and gunshots. So, we decided that we would be staging a sit-down and occupy protest at public facilities until our loved ones are rescued.

“We read from the media, report that one of our loved ones, Al-Amin was shot and that, it was an accidental discharge by one of the non-state actors guarding our loved ones, but the key question now is the state of health of the person that has gunshot wounds.

“There are no antibiotics, nobody to remove the bullets from his body, just imagine the current situation he will be in the bush. He needs urgent support, if he is not brought out of the bush, we may lose him.

ALSO READ FROM  NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

“To be fair, we are seeing some of the outcomes of the government’s efforts. We have seen 11 of our loved ones that have been released, and from the press statement that was released from Garba Shehu on behalf of the President, he made it clear that their children were released to them for us to have our loved ones.

‘We heard it from the highest authority, we know that the government is working on it, yes they are working on it, but what we are demanding is that they should hasten their release, every single moment they spend in the bush is dangerous.

“The agents of government that are involved in this negotiation need to do more, what we want simply is that, we want our loved ones out, we have kids as you have heard earlier on, as young as three years old and from the feedback we had, these kids are unattended to, we have women injured, we have aged women and men, those people should be brought out

Atta maintained that by next week Tuesday, which is going to be 100 days that they have been held captive, they are planning to do a physical protest.