A Senator from Akwa Ibom State, Ekong Sampson has bemoaned the fate of the eight prospective members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) abducted on August 21 in Zamfara State while on their way to the orientation camp in Sokoto State. He has therefore, called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to secure their release.
Family sources said that the abductors were demanding hefty ransom before the kidnapped youths could be released.
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Sources told BusinessDay that although certain amount of money had been paid, the abductors have continued to demand for more.
In a statement by the senator’s media aide, which was made available to the media, Sampson, who represents Akwa Ibom South, bemoaned the fate of the young Akwa Ibom prospective corps members, whose unfortunate abduction has thrown their families into “endless wailing.”
Sampson, who is the vice chairman, Senate Committees on FCT and Education, lamented how the “lofty aims of the NYSC Scheme are being undermined by the trauma some of our youths are going through while answering to National Call.”
He said: “My heart bleeds for those eight Nigerians who are languishing probably in the forest with their driver. These could have been our children. They could have been our relations. For close to two months, nobody knows where they are. The parents weep night and day. Relations cry their eyes out.”
According to him, the current security situation in the country was one “which you are either infected or affected,” noting that the “spate of kidnapping truly calls for concern.”
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The senator also said that it was time for Nigerians to “take ownership of our security architecture,” adding that “we must take security as our common concern to remedy the national embarrassment insecurity has caused the country already.”
According to the statement, the Senate, among other resolutions, had called upon the security agencies to ensure the release of the kidnapped students, corps members and other victims held across the country.
