Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Mua’zu Sambo has said that no ransom was paid in securing the release of the kidnapped victims of the March 28, 2022 Abuja- Kaduna train attack.
The Minister who stated this at a press briefing in Abuja, the nation’s capital disclosed that nothing was paid in exchange for the recent release of the remaining 23 hostages and the other ones as well.
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He added that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had zero tolerance for ransom payment.
“In matters that involve national security and intelligence, it is not appropriate to review exactly what measures have been taken in order to secure the release of hostages of this nature.
“It is the position of this government that under no circumstances should there be collateral damage.
“In other words, the military and security agencies that have been charged with the responsibility of securing the release of these hostages should not act in a way that will endanger the lives of these hostages
“Secondly, there is a committee made up of some retired generals and some retired public officers of high ranking and status who assisted the military and security agencies throughout the process of securing the release of these hostages
“I want to state categorically, that because this government does not support and approve of ransom payment, no kobo was paid in exchange for the release of these 23 hostages, indeed for the other ones as well.”
The Minister also said the victims were not at the briefing because they required medical care and certain other procedures were required after their rescue.
He however noted that after the meeting of the hostages with President Buhari on October 7, they were united with their families.
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“It became obviously difficult to get them back together and bring them here. They actually have a plan of coming to thank the government through the ministry and hopefully, they will give us a date next week,’’ Sambo stated.
Resumption of Train Operations
The Minister said that following the release of March 28 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack victims, plans are underway to resume the train services in earnest.
He disclosed that security architecture has been put in place to ensure such incidents are averted.
“In order to resume train services, we have to put in place measures that will ensure that going forward such an incident will never happen again in this country.
“We have a short-term and long-term plan. The short-term measures will be put in place very quickly to enable rail services to commence.
“And beyond a period of three months, we would have put in place a sustainable plan that would ensure that our rail lines are safe and secure and people can travel on them with their mind and hearts assured of safety.”
The terrorists, who attacked the AK9 Train in Kaduna on March 28, 2022, had before now released hostages in batches with the last release being on August 19, 2022.
The insurgents had blown up the rail track and bombed the moving train, killing some and abducting more than 60 passengers.
PIAK
