‘’We Paid Ransom Not Police Rescue Effort,” Relations Of Kidnapped ABU Students Tell Buhari’s Aide

Relatives of the three students at Ahmadu Bello University, who were kidnapped on the Kaduna-Abuja Highway on Monday, have told the Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, that the Police were never involved in the students’ rescue.

One of the rescued students also said the same thing, Ahmad said.

The presidential aide, therefore, apologized to Nigerians for stating that the Police were responsible for the students’ release, stating that he got the news through the News Agency of Nigeria.

The ABU management had confirmed the abduction of the three final-year law students on Wednesday afternoon, in a statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ismail Shehu.

The statement added that efforts were being made by the university and parents of the abducted students to secure their release.

Then, on Wednesday evening, NAN quoted the Kaduna State Police Command as saying that its operatives had rescued the three students and that some victims were still being held by the criminals.

NAN had attributed the claim to the Kaduna State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Yakubu Sabo.

NAN had reported, “The Command wishes to state that, on the said date, Monday, August 26, at about 18:50hrs, armed men in military uniform intercepted some commuters near Masari village along Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, opened fire on the vehicles, in the process kidnapped six persons.

“Due to the prompt response of the Police and other security agents to the scene, three people were later released by the hoodlums due to intensive combing within the general area.”

The news agency added that the Police statement said the three students, alongside the abandoned vehicles at the scene of the incident, had been moved to the Police Station.

However, on Thursday, Ahmad, took to his verified Twitter handle @BashirAhmaad, to apologise for tweeting the NAN report.

He said that, after he had tweeted the NAN story, a relation of one of the victims got across to him and told him that there was no Police involvement, however small, in the efforts that led to the students’ release by their abductors.