The terrorists that abducted the train passengers traveling from Abuja to Kaduna in March this year have released a video showing the victims being beaten “mercilessly”.
The video, which has since gone viral on social media platforms, showed the gunmen beating their victims with sticks, while the captives cried for help.
In the “disturbing” video, a voice could be heard of a man asking the gunmen to halt the beating. He was heard saying “Ali, Abdullahi [ stop] the beating is enough.”
From there, one of the abducted passengers was shown accusing the government of failing to secure their release.
He called on the governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and others to come to their rescue “since the [Nigerian] government that has that responsibility has failed.”
The captive also said that the gunmen that abducted them never intended to keep them for long, but the government failed to respond to their demands.
Another captive, a woman, was also heard calling the Nigerian government wicked for not rescuing them “after we voted for you.”
One of the gunmen was also shown blaming the Nigerian government for the maltreatment being meted out to the abducted passengers. He said the government had failed to do the needful.
“We know that your plan is to use force to secure the release of the abducted persons. You should know that this is only a little of what we can do. Just like we told you earlier, if you fail to meet our demands soonest this place will turn into a slaughter slab,” he said.
The gunman also vowed that very soon they will abduct senior government officials, politicians, including senators.
The gunmen had last month released additional seven passengers who were reported to have paid N100m each as ransom. Eleven were previously released purportedly in exchange for the children of the gunmen.
A total of 43 passengers are still in the hands of the gunmen. The person serving as a mediator, who is also the publisher of Desert Herald newspaper, Malam Tukur Mamu, told the BBC that the Buhari administration has failed to do what is necessary to secure the freedom of the abducted passengers.
President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier directed the security agencies to do all within their power to ensure the release of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers.
