Abductors of the 27 students and three staff of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, have threatened to starve them to death if the ransom they are demanding is not paid on time.

Recall that on February 17, armed bandits dressed in military uniforms, stormed the school, shot a student dead, and went on to abduct 27 others. The bandits also abducted three members of staff as well as 12 family members of the abducted staff.

In an audio recording released to a prominent Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, one of the abductors who spoke in Hausa, rejected N2.7m offered him as a ransom for the 27 abductees.

“I don’t have food for them. If anybody dies among them, we will tell you where to go and pick the corpse. You know these children are hungry. I don’t have food to give them, only water if they are going to die, let them die.”Punch quotes the bandit as saying

The bandit added that he was aware that many security agents and vehicles had been deployed in Kagara and vowed that they would not succeed in rescuing the abductees.

”You think I don’t know what you people are doing? I can tell you how many security vehicles are in Kagara as we speak.

It is with the help of the people of the city that intruders can overrun the city. Don’t you know that? The person who gave us this business is there among you. He is there with you. Wherever you go, he is watching you. If you want to do this deal, go ahead. From God we come and to him we will return

Even if you put together the entire security forces of Nigeria in Kagara, I have eyes all over Kagara. Whichever step you take in Nigeria, I swear, I will know. You people are saying they should not pay us, that if they pay us, we will use to money to buy weapons. With whose money did we buy our weapons? If we don’t have weapons, you will just send security agents to kill us and take the children.”the bandit said

Appealing to the bandit, the negotiator stated, “They (parents) have agreed to pay N2.7m. Each parent will pay N100,000 .”

But the abductor rejected the offer threatening to unleash terror on Kagara.

“If I want Kagara to be in peace, it will be in peace. If it is not going to be in peace, it will go in pieces from here until Ilorin. If I die in this process, I have children that I have instructed that if I die that I don’t want Kagara to be peaceful if you don’t do as I say. Even if I die, nobody will come into Kagara.”

The abductor also slammed state governors who are against them being paid a ransom.

“Governors are saying we should not be given money because we are going to use it to buy guns; guns that Allah provides and you are boasting about. Niger won’t know peace until it disbands vigilantes.

In all of your (Niger State) madness, you are not up to Zamfara. It was compelled to accept our terms and talk less of small fries like you. You see, if you want to seek peace, seek peace and if you don’t stop the activities of vigilantes in Niger you will not know peace forever.”

Your deploying security officials in Kagara is a waste of time. Is there a fence in this forest? You know we are not in the cities, we are in the forest.”the bandit said