‘They Have Removed Their Hijab, Shirts’ — Parents Of Kidnapped Islamic School Pupils Speak

Parents of pupils abducted from the Salihu Tanko Islamiya School in Niger State have accused the government of totally neglecting them.

Among the parents was the school head teacher, Abubakar Alhassan, whose daughter and biological sister were kidnapped on May 30.

With his eyes clouded with tears, Alhassan was seen in a viral social media video expressing amazement over alleged lack of sympathy from the state government.

He said it was difficult giving hope to the devasted parents while nursing his pain—knowing that the abductees were being allegedly dehumanized.

He said, “The painful thing is that my sister called, she was crying. She said the children are sick, they cannot walk. They have removed their hijab.

“They unveiled them; they have removed their shirts. They left them with only trousers. Hey have no shoes, no food, they are giving them kulikuli, how do you expect them to survive.

“They took them to unknown environment and I heard that they left them on the floor sleeping on the ground, no leaf, no mat, how do you expect them to live like that?”.

Alhassan said, the state government did not only withdraw its hand of sympathy, but allegedly lied to the world about providing motorcycles and vehicles for security operatives to go in search of the abductees.

The state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mohammed Idris, had disclosed that the state had funded the security personnel and provided vehicles and motorbikes needed to aid investigations.

Responding, Alhassan said: “The issue about the press release that they have sent motorcycles and vehicles with men…it is a lie and it is surprising because there is know how they will go to that bush without coming to Tegina. We didn’t see anything not even fly from the state house.

“They are supposed to be the one to come to the school to examine the school environment, to sympathise with the management and the parents of the children but none of them come, they didn’t send any delegate.

“So, they cannot sit down in their offices and be telling lies. It is only the village heads that have been with us”.

Meanwhile, Alhassan disclosed that he witnessed the burial of two parents who could not withstand the news of their abducted children.

“All eyes are on me as the head teacher. I have witnessed the funeral prayer of one of the parents here, very closed to the school. She died and she has one child in the school.

“She was not around when the incident happened but when she came back, they told her that this what is happening, before you know between that 10- 30mins, she fainted and that is the end of her, she died.

“That was the day before yesterday. One day after the incidence happened, another woman died when she heard about the abduction, she died for heart attack.

“As I am talking to you now, my wife is down. They had to drip her yesterday. She did not cook she did not eat.

“Are we not Nigerians, are we not Nigerlite that the government cannot intervene into this issue. This money they are sending to them from the Federal Government, is it their money?

“They supposed to come through, no sympathy at all. None of the government official even say Hi or sorry to us, are we animals?

“Come to Tegina and see it just like Sambisa, many people close their shops and houses to come to sit in the school and the efforts of the people of the community is yielding result as it has managed to raise N10m within 4 days”.

However, the bandits who had earlier demanded the sum of N110m, were reported to have increased the ransom to N200m.

Other parents have continued to plead with the Federal Government to come to their assistant and help secure the release of their abducted children before it is too late.