BY Our Correspondent
The negotiator between the government and the terrorist group holding passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train hostage has sounded the alarm that the remaining victims in custody are facing imminent annihilation due to sundry illnesses and snake bites.
Kaduna-based Malam Tukur Mamu, who is the publisher of the firebrand newspaper Desert Herald, recently succeeded in securing the release of 11 of the victims of the March attack after negotiating with the Ansaru group.
However, he said on Monday that most of the remaining victims “may hardly survive the next few weeks due to their deteriorating health conditions and the inhumane condition they are subjected to in the forest.”
Mamu, who also doubles as the media consultant to the cleric Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, was quoted by his newspaper today as saying even though the remaining victims are not being molested in any way, efforts to rescue them must be treated as a national emergency if the government wants most of them to come back alive.
The publisher said urged the security agencies and concerned Nigerians to act urgently in order to save their lives.
He said: “This is not time to politicise issues. Lives of very promising, innocent Nigerians are involved in this. Their health condition is deteriorating by the day. Even animals without proper care will hardly survive in the environment they are forced to live for nearly three months now.
“I believe government is aware and has taken note of the testimony of the 11 victims that were secured.
“It makes me sad when issues like this should not be treated with dispatch, with the seriousness and speed it requires.”
According to him, the government must activate all avenues of diplomacy.
“It must be a top of its priority now. We must not be distracted by prioritising 2023 as I am sadly seeing now while there is visible and glaring threat of losing the remaining victims.”
Mamu said in addition to lack of diagnosis and treatment, coupled with poor nutrition, poor sanitary condition and exposure to unbearable forest life, most of the hostages have lately developed a series of life-threatening complications, with some vomiting blood.
He revealed that the condition of those with already underlining illnesses is fast deteriorating.
He said in addition to sicknesses that are threatening the lives of many hostages, snake bite that affect many of them “has been consistent lately.”
He said: “I can confirm to you that snakes are many in that forest. Some of them are victims of the snake bites as they appear frequently in the night. They only depends on local solution to treat it.
The bites as we know can be life-threatening.”
He noted that political actors in the country have ignored the issue and rather concentrated on their campaigns.
“There has been no major pronouncement lately by all the major political gladiators. All the major political parties have expectedly kept mute. Is it because none of them or their family members are involved?” he asked.
Mamu also said he feels frustrated and pained whenever he gives updates and publicity to this lingering imbroglio, adding that he is not doing so in order to embarrass the government or to create panic situation amongst the victims’ families but to alert all concerned about the real situation so that urgent collective efforts could be made.
The publisher argued that the Federal Government is the
only authority with the means and power to end the crisis fast.
“And with the right approach I can assure you it can be achieved within days or weeks. We have proven that in the release of the 11 victims.”
He called on the government to “act fast, before it is too late,” saying the government should strike a bargain with the terror group in order to “secure the lives of innocent people from dreaded killers”.
“Government must be prepared to make compromises and to take painful decisions,” he said, adding, “If we can tolerate corrupt officials that are stealing billions every day as a result of which poverty and insecurity increase, for me it is not out of place to use negligible part of such stolen resources to secure such victims whenever the need arises.”
He warned that if for any reason government did not act promptly, “since it has been alerted, they must be prepared to take full responsibility.”
