Open Letter To President Muhammadu Buhari

We are the families of the abducted victims of the tragic train attack by terrorists which occurred on the 28th of March 2022 conveying passengers from Abuja to Kaduna on the Federal Government Train which was suppose to have arrived Kaduna at 8:40pm. Unfortunately, it never reached its destination.

We are here today as a group yearning for solution to bring our family members back home in good health and utmost safety. We will like to bring this to the world stage that we were only contacted by the kidnappers once since the incident, and the call was assurance call to inform us that our family members are with them, a mere proof of life, no health guarantees.

No Government agency reached out to us even though we had made attempts to see the right authorities, nothing.

The mere thoughts of our loved ones being in that perilous state for 17 days in a dehumanising state. Every attempt to reach out to the kidnappers for further discussion and negotiation has proven abortive because the terrorists mentioned in video clip that they only want to discuss with the Federal Government.

We are confused and most of the victims are in dire need of medical attention. For instance, there is a 7 month old pregnant woman who is due for Caesarean session few days from now, it’s been 2 weeks and that puts her more in harm’s way. Her brother, who was shot, has untreated bullet wound. They have with them a toddler and an Eighty-Five (85) years aged woman who is diabetic and so many others.

We don’t have a clue on what to do. Any additional lost of life results to unbearable sorrow to a family but not the government. We are the ones that will feel the pains of not seeing them again.

We are the ones to bear the burden of knowing we could‘ve saved them, had we been given opportunity to negotiate and get our loved ones out. We want to actively participate in ensuring their safety. Nothing is too small or too much to secure the lives of the victims.

The longer they stay there; one cannot help but imagine the emotional, mental and physical trauma they are going through at this moment. The abuses they suffer. This can have a lasting psychological effect on them from now onward. How will that 2yr old toddler look at society going forward?

We have lived in unprecedented agony these past 17 days. Food cannot be eaten without wondering if they have eaten. Sleep becomes evasive without thoughts of how they sleep. Amongst these victims are women who would have to go through their menstrual circles completely unprepared. No! The images are just too painful to play out.

But all we can do is to plead with the Government and good people of the world to come to our aid in securing the safe release of our family members.

We are begging, we are pleading to the kidnappers to provide room for dialogue, so we can negotiate the release of our loved ones.

We beg you to include them in your prayers and thought. It could have been any of us.

Thank you.

Signed:

Aliyu Mahmood

Idayat Yusuf

Dr. Ba‘aba Mohammed.

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