Kidnappers of the 27 students and 15 workers of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, have revealed that they were given the job to abduct the students.
This is coming on the heel of the government effort to rescue the students from the daredevil bandits.
According to a local newspaper, The Punch, the kidnappers had threatened to starve their victims to death if the ransom demanded are not paid on time.
The kidnappers said this in audio released on Wednesday through a prominent Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi.
One of the kidnappers could be heard in the audio speaking in Hausa with a negotiator whom Gumi now identifies as an official of the school where the students were seized.
The bandits are rejecting the N2.7m offered as a ransom for the 27 abductees.
The Punch quotes the bandit as saying that “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.”
In the audio, the negotiator told the kidnapper that they don’t have all the parents’ phone numbers as requested by the bandits. Therefore, it would be not easy to get more money.
The bandit reacted, showing vast knowledge of the government plans to rescue the girls. He told the negotiator that he was aware of the security agents vehicle deployed in Kagara while vowing that they would fail to save the students.
He asked, “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 the 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 negotiator could be heard appealing to the bandit that the parents have agreed to pay N2.7m, “each parent will pay N100,000.”
The abductors rejected, warning that his group would unleash terror on the town of Kagara if their demands are not met.
The abductor stated, “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 bandit also scolded a state governor who had said the gunmen should not be given any ransom.
He added, “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.