Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu says the Federal Government has complied with the demands of the abductors of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers.
He said this in an interview with BBC Hausa aired on Friday.
Shehu said that anyone accusing the government of a nonchalant attitude towards securing the release of the passengers kidnapped on March 28 simply lacked information about the government’s efforts.
He said that the leader of the attackers first demanded the release of his pregnant wife who was in jail.
The presidential spokesman said that the government took her to a hospital, where she birthed twins and all three were freed.
He disclosed that the gang leader still refused to free his victims but demanded the release of six or seven members’ children from prison.
Shehu said that the government got all of them on a plane to Adamawa State as demanded but the terrorists still refused to honour their promise to release the kidnap victims.
“Anyone who says government is not doing anything about their release might be unaware of efforts government is making.
“Let me tell you, initially the gang leader demanded the release of his pregnant wife who was in jail. The govt took her to a hospital where she gave birth to twins and informed him that his wife and the twins are in good health and later all three were freed.
“He refused to free the victims, but he gave a fresh demand of releasing 6 or 7 of his children from prison. Not only did the government release them from jail, it sent a plane to fly them from Adamawa, where they were detained, and delivered them to the terrorists.
“Again, they refused to release the victims. Instead, they asked for money, so you can not say government is doing nothing,” Shehu said.
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