Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the North, John Hayab, says a parent of three pupils kidnapped from St Mary’s Private Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger, has died of a heart attack.
Mr Hayab, who disclosed this in an interview on ARISE TV on Tuesday.
“There is probably something that many Nigerians don’t know. One of the parents of the abducted children, Mr Anthony, died of a heart attack following the abduction of his three children.
“People don’t understand that when you tell it as it is, you’re not speaking against anybody, you are only trying to state the problem. The pains, the trauma, are still very fresh. We tried speaking to the parents today, and they were scared of speaking to us,” he stated.
Decrying misinformation regarding the ongoing efforts to ensure the freedom of the kidnapped children, Mr Hayab denied the claim that the government had deployed maximum security reinforcement in the affected community.
He stated, “I think there is a mix-up of information even in some of these conversations. The locals we spoke to said they didn’t see any military reinforcement in the state. The onus is on the Nigerian government not to speak about this only on the pages of newspapers and television. People want to see concrete actions.”
Meanwhile, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, on ARISE TV on Monday, accused CAN in Niger of refusing to cooperate with the state and the federal governments over the exact number of pupils kidnapped and how to ensure their release.
Mr Hayab dismissed the allegations as untrue.
“What he said was a distortion of what happened. Let’s be sincere with ourselves that although there are efforts from this government, there is still trust deficit,” stated the CAN chieftain. “The government should draw people closer and win their trust because security is everybody’s business.”
When contacted for comment, the police spokesperson in Niger, SP Wasiu Abiodun, told Peoples Gazette that the command had not yet received such information.
Armed bandits invaded the school and kidnapped scores of pupils and teachers. A statement signed by CAN chairman, Bulus Yohanna, put the number of abductees at 315.
