The federal government has been given a 24-hour deadline by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) to obtain the release of Azurfa Lois John, a 21-year-old Christian woman who was kidnapped in the terrorist attack on a Kaduna-Abuja train on March 28, IgbereTV reports
In a statement released on Saturday, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator for HURIWA, warned that if the woman, who has been held captive for almost five months, is not freed, there will be a serious legal battle.
The group acknowledged that it would be hesitant to file a lawsuit against the federal government and to file a complaint with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom over President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
HURIWA noted that approximately 110 young and impressionable schoolgirls were kidnapped by ISWAP terrorists and while some were later freed after paying a high ransom, Leah Sharibu was supposedly married off to a combatant instead of being freed because she adamantly upheld her Christian religion and refused to renounce it.
Tukur Mamu, a terrorist negotiator, had revealed on Friday that a top bandit commander planned “to marry Lois, who is claimed to be the youngest victim of the train attack,” Onwubiko added, noting that ISWAP also threatened to hold Leah as a “slave for life.”
According to Mamu in the statement, the terrorists threatened to do to Lois the same thing they had done to Leah should her parents and the government fail to pay a N100 million ransom to secure her release like that of other hostages whose families and friends have been paying N100 million to secure their release
