Terrorists have released a fresh hostage video showing the kidnap victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack in an unidentified location suspected to be a forest.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that suspected terrorists detonated a bomb on the rail track of an Abuja-Kaduna train on Monday evening, March 28.
Eight people were shot dead by the bandits who opened fire after the train derailed due to the bomb.
In the latest, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Ali-Hassan, who was recently released was flanked by other abductees in the new video.
According to PUNCH, the masked terrorists wore military uniforms and stood behind the abductees in the video released on Sunday.
Some of the captives were seen calling on the government to come to their rescue.
One of them is a lady who identified herself as a student of Kaduna State University.
Another man said he was on his way to Kaduna for eye treatment when he was abducted.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation, in a statement a week ago said 168 out of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service whereabouts are still unknown.
“Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service on March 28, 186 persons on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes,” it said.
The NRC said of the remaining 176 passengers, eight have been confirmed dead, leaving the whereabouts of 168 still unknown.
In the first video, the speaker said they decided to release Ali-Hassan out of compassion as a “Ramadan gesture,” and his “advanced age”.
Although the speaker claimed no ransom was paid for Ali-Hassan’s release, family sources said they had to pay money to the captors.
The masked men do not claim affiliation to any group but the recording closely resembles propaganda videos by terrorist groups waging a more than 12-year insurrection in Nigeria’s northeast.
The opening prayer in Arabic by one of the men is the same as in all previous propaganda videos by terrorist groups. The positioning of the gunmen with the hostage is also similar.