…claim to have spent N55m ransom paid earlier to feed kidnapped students
Abductors of the students of Greenfield University, Kaduna, have threatened to kill the remaining 17 students in their custody if their demands are not met by Tuesday.
No fewer than 23 students including a staff member of the privately-owned university, located along the Kaduna-Abuja Highway, were abducted from the school on April 20, 2021.
But within a week, the bandits killed five of the students and dumped their corpses around the university’s campus.
Leader of the bandits, Sani Idris Jalingo, in an interview with the Hausa Service of the Voice of America, demanded a ransom of N100 million and 10 brand new motorcycles, warning that failure of the Kaduna State Government or families of the abducted students to pay the ransom and provide them with the bikes by Tuesday would result in their killing of the remaining students in their custody.
Jalingo further warned that if the N100m ransom and the items demanded were not provided on Tuesday, trucks would be used to evacuate the corpses of the remaining abducted students.
The bandits’ leader said 17 of the abducted students, including 15 females and two males, one of whom he identified as Hamza, a grandchild of the late 18th emir of Zazzau, Shehu Idris, are still in their custody.
Jalingo revealed that the families of some of the students had already raised and paid them N55 million but which they had expended on feeding the abducted students.
He emphasised that that was the bandits’ final warning, adding that if government or the students’ families fail to meet their demands for the N100milion ransom, they would kill all the remaining students.
“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 said.
When asked by the VOA correspondent if he was proud to be seen as a terrorist, Jalingo, who laughed heartily, answered, “I’m nothing but a food seeker.”
Reiterating his earlier warning, Jalingo said, “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.”
The bandits’ leader also warned security agencies not to waste their time fixing tracking devices on the motorcycles as his members do not go to cities where they could be easily arrested.
Following the April 20, 2021 abduction of the students and a staff of the school, the bandits had contacted their parents, demanded N800 million ransom for their release.
The bandits however later killed five of the students over the failure to meet their demands.