With a significant number of informants among the populous society in the northwest region of Nigeria, terrorist groups of armed bandits invest hugely in identifying the identities of their hostages while negotiating payments of ransom.
The terrorist group of armed bandits linked to the factional terrorist organizations of Boko-Haram (ISWAP) operating in west Africa with the mission of establishing an Islamic state claimed responsibility for bombing a moving train heading to Kaduna from Abuja, a mission that cost the nation many lives while holding several people hostage.
The terrorists strategically released pictures of the victims with clear faces while covering the background of the location, aiming to get more information while shaming the governments to honor demands known only between the two parties.
Driving Data From Social Media
Daily Episode understands how social media users in Nigeria sympathize with victims’ families while praying for the safe release of those held captive by using Facebook and Twitter most of the time.
For the second time, pictures of the kidnapped victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train trend on Facebook and Twitter, with many pointing to signs identifying their friends and families, while others pray for the safe release of their bosses and political mentors.
On the trend, two Kaduna politicians’ names were mostly called and tagged by the Facebook community: M. S. Ustaz Mesittin and Sadik Ango Abdullahi, whose father was a prominent northerner and whose mother was once a minister of women’s affairs under President Muhammadu Buhari’s first administration, the Late Jumai Alhassan.
How Social Media Information Puts Victims In Danger
The abductors had no information on the victims’ personalities, but the moment’s first video was released by the terrorist who claimed to free the managing director of the Nigerian Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, on health grounds of his old age, though many sources confirmed payments of N100m to Ransome.
The terrorists started contacting some families, giving them thought conditions while demanding amounts that many families may not be able to afford unless the government intervenes.
In the Daily Episode interview, a family member who prefers anonymity said my two sisters were among the kidnapped passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna train.
We hardly eat or sleep, and talk more about going to work. We are traumatized and feel we may lose our sister because of the wrong information given to the terrorist after several Facebook posts from sympathizers.
We are surprised at how they mention a list of some properties for us to sell and raise money for ransom.
Like these families, many are contacted while the post on social media continues to feed the terrorists’ information about the victims and their families.
From the recently released pictures, more names emerge, and more families celebrate seeing their loved ones alive, though some with injuries.
Among them were women and children, and both men, though one appeared to be a foreigner.
However, the victims’ families had earlier lamented that the governments were after repairing the bomb Railtrack, while calling on Nigerian transport minister, Roti Amaechi, and the governments to negotiate with the terrorists, Daily Episode could not understand if the governments were willing to negotiate as the recently released picture comes with questions about whether the negotiations were stalled or yielding results.
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