One of the kidnapped Bethel Baptist Secondary school students has reportedly refused to return to his family, stating that he’s comfortable with his abductors.
It can be recalled that on Monday, July 5, 2021, gunmen attacked the school located along the Kaduna-Kachia highway, Damishi, and abducted 121 students. However, 120 of them have since been released, leaving behind one student.
The student has now expressed desire to be with the bandits rather than return home to his family. The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Joseph John Hayab, made this revelation.
According to Vanguard, Hayab also disclosed that the member of the CAN who took the ransom demanded by the terrorists was also kidnapped after he delivered the message.
“The remaining student preferred to remain with the bandits, it puzzled the entire members of the Baptist family and indeed, CAN. The bandits were said to be showering the boy with gifts each time they went out and come back from operations, thereby, making him reject the offer of freedom.
He is the smallest among them. I think the kidnappers were smart. They worked and changed his mind that he even said he wants to stay with them. They gave him meat, good things. Anytime they go out and come back, they pick him among the rest and gave him so many things and then he starts acting funny.
If they tell him to go home, he would say he was not going and gave some flimsy excuses that his parents used to beat him at home. I understand they are playing mind games with him by giving him gifts and convincing him to talk that way.
Last week, they asked us to bring some money to come and take him. The person who took the money to them was kidnapped. The person is with them as I speak now. So, the whole thing is taking a different dimension and we need to be careful”, Hayab said.
