Fourteen
days after their children were kidnapped, parents of students of the Lagos
State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, stormed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s office
i
n Alausa area of Ikeja and demanded their release.
Amid wailing
and tears, the aggrieved parents urged the state government to act fast to save
their children from the kidnappers.
The parents
said the kidnappers told them, on Tuesday, that four of their children are now
sick, and would not negotiate with them
or be allowed to speak with their children anymore.
The parents
added that the kidnappers insisted on negotiating with the state government.
A parent,
Mrs. Toyin Philips, mother of a 17-year-old kidnapped student of the school,
Pelumi, demanded urgent government
intervention.
Her words:
“I want my son back. I sent my son to the school because there was no money. If
I had the money they are demanding for, would I have sent my son to that
school?” she asked rhetorically.
“We are the
one negotiating with the kidnappers. The kidnappers said they wanted N100
million. Government, please, don’t let our children die. Let their release be
done today,” lamented another parent, Mrs Agbaosi, whose son, Judah, was
kidnapped.
Mr. Dapo
Adesega, who spoke on behalf of the
parents lamented that their children have been with the kidnappers for 14 days
and that government has not communicated with them.
“If you
don’t communicate with us, how do we know that government cares for our plight?
“If we had
not come here, today, we won’t have heard anything from the government,” he
told government officials who were sent to address them.
“Nobody from
the government has come to us, since the incident occurred two weeks ago. We
did not come here with placards because we want government to help us. Please,
government should help us. We have been trying to negotiate with them but they
rejected our offer because it is too small.
“They said
we cannot speak with our children again as four of them are ill. We want
government to help us, we are trusting in you. Our kids are not allowed to talk
to us again, I took my child to a government school, so the government should
help us,” he begged.
According to sun news,Moruf Ramon,
whose 19-year-old son Isiaka, is among the kidnapped students said “they
refused to negotiate with us” because of what they offered, N10 million, was
too small.
The state
government’s delegate, who later addressed the parents was led by Commissioner
for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami and Special Adviser
to the Governor on Community and Communications, Kehinde Bamigbetan, among
others.
They assured
the parents that government would ensure the students are released.
Bamigbetan
told the parents that government share in their
pains and assured them that everything would be done to get the children
released.
Folami, on
his part, appealed to the parents to be calm, with an assurance that government
is doing all it could to get the children released, soonest.
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