There was an outrage on Sunday over the brutal whipping of some of the 43 passengers abducted from the Kaduna-Abuja train by their captors.
No fewer than eight persons were killed and 61 others kidnapped during the attack at Katari, Kaduna, on March 28.
In a viral video posted on social media, the hoodlums were seen flogging the male victims who wailed in pain as their female counterparts watched helplessly in horror and fear.
The 10 minutes, 51 seconds video which was captured on a mobile phone showed a leader of the abducted passengers soliciting the assistance of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other members of the international community.
The video generated widespread anger from the victims’ families and Nigerians who berated the Federal Government over its failure to rescue the hostages who had been in captivity for about four months.
The terrorists, who were demanding a N100m ransom for each of the 43 abductees, were said to have been annoyed by the delayed payment of the ransom.
As part of their demands, the militants had requested the release of 15 terrorist commanders, including their children detained by the military and an undisclosed amount of cash.
The Managing Director of the Bank of the Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, was the first to be released after reportedly paying a N100m ransom on April 7.
On June 12, the terrorists released 11 hostages after 75 days in captivity, through the assistance of the Publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald newspaper, Mallam Tukur Mamu, who has been negotiating with the militants.
Another seven regained their freedom on July 9, few days after the Islamic State West Africa Province attacked the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, Abuja, and freed the masterminds of the train attack, including 64 terrorist commanders in custody.
One of the terrorists in the video vowed to abduct the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, senators and other prominent Nigerians, including Senators and governors and destabilise the country if their demands were not met.
The terrorists also threatened to kill and sell off some of the abductees as slaves.
He said, “This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.
“Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining. By God’s grace, El-Rufai, Buhari, we will bring you here.”
