By Chrystal NK Chukwudebe
WED 02 JUNE, 2021-theGBJournal- The Head Teacher of Islamiyya School, Tigena, Niger State, Nigeria Abubakar Alhassan today painted gory and distressing picture of the condition of toddlers kidnapped recently from the school, revealing that one of the parents of the toddler has died from apprehension.
The greatly worried and exhausted Head Teacher spoke to Arise News crew, revealing the number of the children kidnapped, the torture on the hands of the bandits and the state government’s insensitivity to the plight of the children.
‘’So far we have registered up to 150 pupils that were adopted,’’ revealed the Head Teacher who said the school has opened a register for affected parents.
‘’We have talked to many government agencies and there are no response from them. Nobody responded. It is only the local government Chairman sent his councillors to come and see us and sympathise with us.’’
He revealed that the armed bandits are demanding N110 million as ransom for the kids with them who are aged 4 to 5 years old and there is no way they can get the money to give the bandits.
‘’They reached me to make their demand because my teachers are with them (the bandits), two female teachers and one male. They all have my number. The bandits asked them who to call and they gave them my number as the Head Teacher. So they started calling me and negotiating with me.’’
Alhassan told Arise News that the bandits first demand was N300 million ‘’which we said we don’t have. From there, they came back to N100 million. They warned us that if we eventually didn’t pay them the money by (Monday) they are going to increase the money to N110 million. That is the last price they gave us.’’
According Alhassan, the State government has not interfered till date.
‘’What I know is that the Secretary to the State Government through his wife has reached out to me promising during the conversation, to interfere. But up until now as I talk to you, there is nothing on the ground and none of them (Government officials) came to sympathise with us.’’
He confirmed that the bandits released 11 of the toddlers that could not walk to the forest where they were taken to on that same Sunday they were kidnapped.
He said, while giving account of the invasion, that the bandits surrounded the school and the environs, came with more than 25 motor cycles, carrying heavy duty guns with ammo strapped on their bodies, their faces covered with mask and shooting sporadically into the air to scare away people.
‘’What pains much is that I pleaded with the bandits to please give me one of the teachers so that I can talk to the children, when I talked to the teacher, she was complaining to me that the bandits have started beating the children yesterday and no food, no water and some of the kids cannot move again. So that is the crisis situation we are now. In fact we are in a very bad situation here,’’ Alhassan lamented.
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