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Parents of the recently freed students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka in Kaduna State have refuted claims that they were sexually harassed while in captivity.
The parents in their reaction to the report described it as a fabrication that is unfortunate and irresponsible.
Earlier, reports alleged that the students were sexually harassed and that some of the male victims were sodomised and disfigured by the bandits while in their captivity.
According to the reports, one of the parents gave the information on the condition of anonymity.
But a statement titled, ‘Re: Revealed: 27 Afaka Students were Sexually, Homosexually molested by bandits,’ issued by the Chairman of the parents’ forum, Abdullahi Usman, said a bandit who only expressed an intention to do something like that, paid dearly for it with his life.
It read, “While we were basking in the joy of having reunited with our precious children, who were released unharmed after 56 gruesome days in captivity, our attention was drawn to a May 11th, 2021 error-ridden online publication by Reuben Abati and some online media, including Daily Times to the effect that an unidentified parent of one of the 27 students released on May 5th, speaking on the condition of anonymity, had disclosed that the students, both male and female, ‘were sexually, homosexually molested by the bandits’ while in captivity. Other online media outlets (not SaharaReporters) also published the self-same report.
“On behalf of the parents of the Forum of the 37 abducted students (now released), we wish to set the records straight and hope that this will end the circulation of the fabrication which the story is. We state in unequivocal terms that none of the 37 kidnapped (now freed) Afaka students was sexually or homosexually molested by the bandits. In fact, by divine providence, according to the testimony of all the released students, one bandit lost his life on the mere mention of the desire to sexually molest a student.
“To be sure, the students confessed that ‘He did’t even actually attempt it; he was just saying it, and yet he was killed and we were asked to take his corpse and deposit it in a nearby bush because they said he was not worthy of a proper burial.’
“As parents of the released students, our primary focus now is the rehabilitation of our treasures whom God has brought back to us alive and miraculously unharmed. Distractions such as occasioned by this false report, purportedly a revelation by an anonymous parent, is unfortunate and irresponsible and should be retracted as it does nothing but aggravate the trauma we and our released children are working hard to overcome.
“We wish to call on Nigerians, who stood by us from the time our children were abducted to the date the last 27 were released, to disregard the story and continue to pray for us as we continue with the rehabilitation of our children so that they may get back to normal life again very soon.”
This post was written by Obiajulu Joel Nwolu.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.