'We need God’s intervention, we don’t have extra N80m ransom' - Baptist students’ parents

About 34 days after being held by bandits, parents of students of the Bethel Baptist College in Kaduna State on Monday said they had run out of cash and could not afford the extra N80m ransom.

A parent, who did not want to be identified, said this in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday.

He also dismissed the video where children were being maltreated as fake, saying it was to create apprehension.

The source said, “If there is any positive update, you will be informed accordingly. If it is the fake video where they were being children, they’re not our children.

“It has been 34 days that these children have been with their abductors. We are appealing to Nigerians and the government. The bandits are still insisting on the extra N80m and we told them that we cannot afford that. We can’t get that money.

“If the government put the bandits on the run, they will quickly collect whatever we have and release our children. But because they are comfortable; no one is putting them under any pressure, they are still holding on to these children. If government create fears in the abductors, they will release our children.”

The bandits had on July 5, 2021, stormed the school located along the Kaduna-Kachia highway in the Chikun Local Government Area and made away with the students.

The proprietor, who is also the President, Kaduna Baptist Conference, Rev. Ishaya Jangado, disclosed that no fewer than 121 students were abducted by the bandits. One of the students was later released by the bandits on health grounds, while seven others escaped at different times.

The abductors were reported to have demanded N60m as ransom.

Twenty-eight students of the Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, were released after the payment of N50m, while about 87 remained in the kidnappers' den.