By MUHAMMAD SABIU, Kaduna

The parents of the Afaka Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Kaduna State have denied reports that their children were sexually abused and molested by the bandits as published in some online media.

In a statement issued by the Chairman of the Parents Forum, Abdullahi Usman, on behalf of other parents on Sunday, they said claims by an unidentified parent who spoke on the condition of anonymity that both male and female students were sexually, homosexually molested by the bandits while in captivity were untrue.

The statement disclosed that “on behalf of the parents of the Forum of the 37 Abducted Students (now released), we wish to set the records straight and hope that this will end the circulation of the fabrication which the story is.

“We state in unequivocal terms that none of the 37 kidnapped (now freed) Afaka students was sexually or homosexually molested by the bandits.

“In fact, by divine providence, according to the testimony of all the released students, one bandit lost his life on the mere mention of the desire to sexually molest a student.

“To be sure, the students confessed that he didn’t even actually attempt it; he was just saying it, and yet he was killed and ‘we were asked to take his corpse and deposit it in a nearby bush because they said he was not worthy of a proper burial’.”

To this end, the parents of the released students said “our primary focus now is the rehabilitation of our treasures whom God has brought back to us alive and miraculously unharmed.

“Distractions such as occasioned by this false report, purportedly a revelation by an anonymous parent, is unfortunate and irresponsible and should be retracted as it does nothing but aggravate the trauma we and our released children are working hard to overcome.

“We wish to call on Nigerians, who stood by us from the time our children were abducted to the date the last 27 were released, to disregard the story and continue to pray for us as we continue with the rehabilitation of our children so that they may get back to normal life again very soon,” the statement declared. (Sunday Tribune)

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