The Federal Government has disclosed that no ransom was paid for the recent release of the remaining 23 victims of the March 23, 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack by terrorists, that left some passengers dead, and many severely injured.
The Minister of Transportation, Mu-Azu Sambo disclosed this in Abuja, while briefing journalists on the release of the victims.
Sambo insisted that no dime was paid to the abductors of the train victims, as the present administration frowns at monetary negotiation with terrorists.
He said, “I want to state categorically that because this government does not support or approve ransom payment, no Kobo was paid in exchange for the release of the 23 hostages and even for the release of the other hostages”.
He further revealed that the hostages were released based on the efforts of the combined team of retired Generals and some retired public officers of high ranking and status who worked with the military and the security agencies to secure their release.
“The security agencies were charged to ensure no collateral damage was recorded in the process of freeing the victims” Sambo noted that no one victim was hurt.”
The minister added that the victims are receiving required medical attention after their release, as they were taken to the Nigeria Air Force Hospital and are currently recuperating at the Nigeria Defense Academy Hospital in Kaduna state.
On the resumption of the Abuja-Kaduna train services, he gave assurance that commercial activities will kick off soon.
The minister assured that both long-term and short-term measures would be put in place to avoid such ugly incidence.
He said, the short-term measures will be urgently put in place to ensure the resumption of train services very soon.
“Now, I can tell you, we are going to resume very soon and in order to resume train services, we have to put in place measures that will ensure that going forward such an incident will never ever happen in this country. And so we have a short-term and a long-term plan”.
It could be recalled that, at about 8pm on 28th March, 2022, a train heading to Kaduna from Abuja was attacked by gunmen using explosives on the rail tracks to stop the train.
About 62 persons were kidnapped by the terrorists during the attack. Over the past months, the victims have been released in batches, with the last 23 hostages released as the last batch.
