By GARBA MUHAMMAD, Kaduna

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has advised the Kaduna State Government to stop spreading misinformation about the release of those abducted by bandits at the staff quarters of Kaduna International Airport.

HURIWA, in a statement on Monday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, was reacting to the recent revelation by Murtala Yusuf, a brother to one of the abductees from the staff quarters of Kaduna International Airport, who told Rahma Television and Radio 97.3fm Kaduna that his family paid N4 million ransom for the release of his sister, Badiatu Gambo, and her daughter, Bilkisu.

“It was total irresponsibly for any government to claim to have rescued abductees when families of such abductees actually paid heavily for the release of their loved ones,” HURIWA said.

Yusuf had insisted during the television and radio programme that when his sister and her daughter were released and were on their way out of captivity, “the military came and picked them and others to the Government House, where the state government claimed that the abductees were rescued by the security forces.”

However, HURIWA charged the State Government to refund to families of victims of kidnapping all the ransom payments made to the kidnappers before they were released.

“Kaduna State Government may be deliberately misinforming the public on the state of affairs in the state to gain public applause whereas the opposite may be the case if the allegations by the families of the victims of kidnapping on the payments they made to the daredevil kidnappers are anything to go by.

“The deliberate misinformation of the public on the claims and counterclaims about the release of victims of kidnap and terrorism in the state will negatively affect the fight against terrorism and banditry.

“Taking glory for victims’ freedom when ransoms were actually paid by their families shows how insensitive the Nasir El-Rufai-led administration can be alleged to be to the dehumanizing plight of citizens ever as the government has failed to protect the citizens that have continued to be subjected to massacre, abduction and destruction of their ancestral communities since 2015,” the rights group said.

HURIWA also called on the Kaduna State Government and the Federal Government to do everything possible to ensure the safe release of the 39 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization who were abducted by terrorists two weeks ago and the three teachers of Rema Primary School abducted in Birnin Gwari last week.