The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the North, John Hayab, has revealed that a parent of three pupils abducted from St Mary’s Private Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, has died of a heart attack.
Hayab made the disclosure during 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,” he said.
“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 criticised misinformation surrounding efforts to secure the release of the kidnapped pupils and denied claims that the government had deployed significant security reinforcements to the affected community. “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,” he stated.
This comes after presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, also on ARISE TV on Monday, accused CAN in Niger of refusing to cooperate with both the state and federal governments regarding the exact number of abducted pupils and the rescue process.
Hayab rejected the allegations. “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,” he said. “The government should draw people closer and win their trust because security is everybody’s business.”
When asked for an update, Niger Police spokesperson SP Wasiu Abiodun told Peoples Gazette that the command had not received such information.
Armed bandits had stormed the school and abducted scores of pupils and teachers. A statement issued by CAN Chairman Bulus Yohanna placed the number of abductees at 315.
