Negotiate with bandits, parents of abducted Kaduna students beg El-rufai

Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State has been advised to negotiate with bandits to secure the release of abducted students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka area of the state.

The students numbering 36 were kidnapped days after the governor said he will not negotiate with criminal elements in his domain.

But reminding him of his earlier negotiation with killer herdsmen in Southern Kaduna, Sani Friday, a parent to two of the kidnapped students pleaded with the governor to negotiate or allow the federal government to do so for the safe return of the abductees.

“It’s the same state government which some time ago told the entire Kaduna state that if it cost him paying bandits to stop killing the citizens of Kaduna state, he’ll pay them. But that statement was about a year or two ago,” Mr Friday who said he was speaking on behalf of other parents told Channels Television.

“The best way we want the government to go about this is to, first of all, negotiate. Even if they want to put any other security measure on the ground, it should be after this.

“Parents are crying, why is it that it is in our time that we’re going through all this? If the state government feels they cannot negotiate, let the federal government do something for our children to be reunited with us,” he pleaded.