“We are the ones who kidnapped the people on the train. We decided to release this man [Alwan Ali-Hassan, director of Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture] only due to his old age and in honour of the holy month of Ramadan. He has been pleading since we abducted him.”
These were the chilling words from the men who released a video about the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, which killed eight people and wounded 29 others, on Monday, March 28. An unknown number of stranded passengers were kidnapped.
In the video, the bombers say: “This is to show the Nigerian Government that the train attack was a tip of the iceberg, it is just a little of what we can do.”
They also say that if the government does not heed their demands they will turn the place where the more than 100 kidnapped passengers are being held into “an abattoir”.
The video is about one minute, 20 seconds long and it was posted online on Thursday, April 7. It shows Ali-Hassan standing with four heavily armed masked men in military uniform facing the camera. The men spoke in Hausa.
Ali-Hassan, whom the men allowed to speak, confirmed the reason given for his release. He urged the Federal Government to take the necessary steps to secure the release of those being held captive.
One of the gunman said they didn’t want money.
“We did not do this for money; the government knows what our demands are and it must do the needful, otherwise we will kill the more than 100 hostages we have in our custody.”
RNI was told that there was a growing concern among some local authorities and analysts that the train bombers had a strong connection with other armed groups, such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Jamāʿat Ahl al-Sunnah li-l-Daʿawah wa al-Jihād (JAS), more commonly known as Boko Haram.
After some senior analysts carefully and critically analysed the video, they suggested that there was some elements of similarity, especially the opening prayer in Arabic by one of the masked men, that it was the same as in previous propaganda videos released by the JAS and ISWAP. The positioning of the gunmen with the hostage was also typical of those videos, they said.
Audu Bulama Bukarti, a senior conflict analyst at the Tony Blair Institute, wrote on his twitter handle: “Early evidence suggests that ABJ-KD train attackers are Boko Haram. In this video, they released the MD of Bank of Agric because ‘he’s old and it’s Ramadan’. They said government should work to free the remaining victims quickly or they would ‘turn their abode into an abattoir’.
“They said they’re not after ransom and that govt knows what they want. Judging from their language and posture, these are not bandits. They are likely members of the Ansaru faction of Boko Haram and [the] demand is likely the release of their leaders who have been a detention for long.”
Bukarti said that Ali-Hassan’s release was based on a ransom paid to his captors. “A family source confirmed to me that ₦100 million was paid in cash for the release of the MD of Bank of Agric. The crazy money terrorists are making in Nigeria! This problem will simply keep growing. Not only are there no consequences to terrorism, it also pays handsomely. It’s sad.”
Bukarti’s Twitter feed included the video.
Teniola Taiyo, a senior researcher of the Lake Chad Basin Programme of the Institute For Security Studies (ISS), told RNI that there was a potential socioeconomic and political link between bandits operating in the northwest and other armed groups, such as the Ansaru sect, which operates independently of the JAS, but is considered to be part of ISWAP or JAS in northeast Nigeria.
She said most of the bandits kidnapped people for money. That was how they earned a living.
There was not just one group known as bandits in Nigeria. “There are many, many different groups. The key thing we need to realise is that some of these groups are extremists and others are just very radical criminal groups.”
Taiyo said at some point there might be an alignment in their goals.
There could also be a political issue going on in which “political actors” saw a benefit to supporting these groups. They might not necessarily subscribe to the bandit or armed groups’ ideology but see a way of making money, she said.
If a kidnapping occurred they might work with these groups, with the aim as being to be seen as a “saviour” who had managed to get kidnapped people back, or they might have some other motivation or agenda as long as it would benefit them in some way. In that case, their the goals and objectives could align with bandit groups and they would support and work with the criminals to achieve their goals.
Kaduna State governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai condemned the attack and claimed the attackers were “members of Boko who are collaborating with bandits”.
Northwest and central Nigeria had been terrorised by criminal gangs, often referred to as bandits, who raided villages, looted homes, killed residents and kidnapped for ransom. Recently their attacks and abductions had intensified. It was for that reason that analysts and some government authorities believed they might have made alliances with JAS or other similar groups, he said.
However, there no specific group had claimed responsibility for the train attack or the video, which was shot in an unidentified deep forest area with a destroyed armoured vehicle in the background.
SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO
