Following the demand of N1 billion ransom for the abducted Kaduna students, the Defence Headquarters has equally disclosed that “these hostages are being held in locations that are difficult to get to, but not out of reach”.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, revealed this on Thursday at a news briefing.
Buba, at the news briefing on the operations of the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the last two weeks, added that the abduction of the 287 students at a school in Kuriga, Kaduna State last week was a counter measure by the suspected bandits to use soft targets as human shields and prevent further air and land offensive against them.
He said opined that following the depletion of several terrorists gangs in troops offensives, the terrorists may also be planning on recruiting new foot soldiers hence the abduction of young students and children
He said: “We have depleted their ranks, neutralised many of their commanders and foot soldiers.
“The terrorists exhibited gross cowardice by going after children.
“We have taken their Commanders out.
“We recently acquired new air platforms to further decimate them.
“They know we mean business.
“It is to protect themselves that they went after the students.
“But we will not rest until all the kidnapped victims are rescued.”
Speaking on the timeline of when the children were abducted, General Buba stated that it took more than six hours after the incident for the information to get to security agencies before machinery was set in motion for their rescue.
He said: “As in every war, there are complexities and ours is no exception.
“Recently, cases of citizens being abducted in the North East, North West and North Central theatres of operations were recorded.
“These citizens were abducted by a brutal and bloodthirsty group that should only be addressed as terrorists not bandits.
“I repeat, these are terrorists and not bandits.
“They are holding these citizens against their will and against all norms of human behaviour, and against the laws of armed conflict and any good measure in the world.
“Several of their leaders and commanders have been neutralised as a result of troops’ onslaught.
“They want to use these hostages as human shields for their survival.
“Nevertheless, be assured that we will not rest until the hostages are returned.
“No doubt, this is a difficult situation, but not one that is insurmountable.
“The hostage situation is an extremely sensitive one, which unfortunately is not unprecedented in the history of the ongoing war.
“These hostages are being held in locations that are difficult to get to, but not out of reach.
“The situation is however indicative of the desperation of these terrorists to avoid troops’ onslaught by all means.
“Recall that in recent times, troops have decimated several of the terrorist leaders, commanders and foot soldiers and fast closing in one several others.
“These terrorists have exhibited cowardice by going for such soft targets to impede troop advances.
“I assure you that we will not rest until they are returned.
“Given the hostage situation, it can be deduced that the search and rescue effort was grossly affected by the non-timely notification of troops of the incident.
“Nevertheless, I can assure you that we will not rest until these hostages are returned.
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“However, because of the sensitivity of the matter, I cannot go into further details as to signs of life, location and the different options that we have in order to get these hostages back.
“Let me further assure that getting these hostages back is very clearly on the top of our priorities.
“It is for this reason we have leveraged on our international partners for support.
“Accordingly, they are providing the necessary support, including intelligence, that is giving us the advantage in dealing with the ugly situation.”