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Kaduna train attack: Bandits parade kidnapped victims including student

Bandits who attacked the Kaduna-Abuja bound train on March 28 have paraded their victims in an unidentified location suspected to be a forest.

In a video obtained by Channels Television, the gunmen were seen putting on military camouflage and uniforms.

The bandits made their captives call on the government to come to their rescue. One of the victims is a young lady who identified herself as a student of Kaduna State University.

Another is a man who said he was on his way to Kaduna for eye treatment.

“We’re the passengers from Abuja heading towards Kaduna and were abducted. We have sick ones, old and young; a mother and her children. Only God knows what we have been through here,” one of the victims pleaded.

“Please, we are pleading that the government meet their needs and rescue us.”

The undated video also showed the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Ali-Hassan, who has since been released by the bandits.

He appeared in a previous video before he was later released in what his captors said was a goodwill gesture for the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan.

Ali-Hassan’s family confirmed last week it was him in the first video and that he had been freed by his captors.

The sophisticated attack saw gunmen blow up the tracks to halt a train from the capital Abuja to Kaduna — Nigeria’s flagship rail service.

They then opened fire on the coaches before seizing an unknown number of passengers from the train’s so-called VIP section.

There has been no claim of responsibility, although the finger of blame swiftly pointed at heavily armed criminal gangs known as bandits who have ravaged parts of northwest and central Nigeria.

So far, the victims have spent at least 13 days in the bush with their abductors.(Channels TV)

•PHOTO: The attacked train and the kidnapped victims