One of the kidnapped victim of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, has said they paid their abductors (terrorists), in dollars to regain their freedom.
The victim who was among the seven train passengers released last on Saturday, July 9, 2022, also alleged that they sold their properties to raise the money.
The victim who does not want his name mentioned also revealed that a total of $1.3 million dollars equivalent of N800 million was paid to the terrorists.
He said only a Pakistan national among them paid N200 million before he was set free.
“For each six of us Nigerian victims, we paid N100 million, but the terrorists collected N200 million for the foreigner, a Pakistan nationale.”
“We learned that only N200 million was collected in Naira, but the remaining N600 million was paid in dollars.”
“Since the government couldn’t help and there were threats on our lives we sold our properties and other belongings to pay the money,” he said.
He continued: “One of the freed captives had offered to singlehandedly pay the terrorists N200 million so that they release the entire remaining captives, but the terrorists rejected the offer and asked every hostage to pay 100 million to breathe the air of freedom.
“Those who could not pay are still in the forest. The terrorists were claiming that they spent huge sum of money in taking care of the hostages over the past 3 months”, he said.
Recall that seven more kidnapped passengers of the March 28 train attack in Kaduna State were released by the terrorists who attacked the train.
The victims were released by their abductors on Saturday after spending over 100 days in captivity.
A member of the negotiating team and media consultant to Kaduna based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Gumi, Mr. Tukur Mamu, told journalists that the kidnapped victims were released based on dialogue and negotiation with the terrorists.
