The terrorists that bombed the Abuja – Kaduna train conveying nearly a million passengers have released a video clip showing that they have allegedly released the Managing Director of the Nigerian Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan. It would be recalled that Hassan was released by the bandits on Wednesday.
In the video clip, the terrorists said they were releasing one hostage on account of his old age and because of Ramadan, but quickly warned that nothing had changed as they would still continue with their agenda. The released hostage bears a striking resemblance to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan.
Speaking in Hausa in front of a destroyed armoured personnel carrier somewhere in the forest, they claimed they did not need money, pointing out that if it was all about money, they did not need to destroy the train to get it. They claimed that the government knew what they wanted and called on the government to act quickly or they would kill the hostages. They also allowed the released hostage to speak in the video.
The transcript of the video is as follows:
First terrorist: “We are the Bandits that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train some time ago and seized numerous hostages. This hostage with us, because of his old age and pleas, and in the spirit of the month of Ramadan, we took pity on him. We have brought him out of the deep forest, and we will let him go free – we will hand him over to his relatives. But this government should know what’s up. This is nothing, we just pitied the old man. We are going to give him the opportunity to speak, in case he has more things to explain. Listen to him:”
Hostage: “Greetings. I want to let you know that the bandits have pitied me because of my age, and they have brought me out here. I want to let you know that I have left behind in captivity numerous hostages and they will need a lot of help to get out quickly. So, I hope the government will meet the leadership of these bandits and sit and negotiate with them in other for the rest of the hostages to be released.”
Second terrorist: “This thing we are telling you is for certain. Either you give in to our demands or we will deal with all the hostages – to kill them off is a very small thing to us. And you know very well that it’s not your money that we want because if it’s money that we want we wouldn’t even have to go to this extent (bombing the train). You know exactly what we want. You better shape up and do exactly what we want.”
