Professor Usman Yusuf, a former executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and secretary of the Chief of Defence Staff Action Committee (CDSAC) said the terrible approach by the federal government was responsible for the abduction of the girls.
Yusuf was among the team that negotiated the release of the remaining 23 abductees of the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train passengers.
Speaking on Trust TV’s Daily Politics programme on Thursday, he said, “This is the first mass abduction after the one in Birnin Yauri. There has been a lull of over a year, and all of a sudden, we have this. It is very depressing; it is disheartening for anyone who is a parent, anyone who is a human being.
Seven Terrorist Kingpins Who Attended Secret Meeting with FG ‘Officials’
He revealed that a sidelined bandit kingpin was responsible for the abduction of female students of Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, it has emerged.
According to him, the kingpin took the decision in order to vent his anger for being sidelined by the various negotiating teams dispatched by the federal government, according to Daily Trust.
“Why are we having this incident again, nine and half years after Chibok? The government and security agencies have learned nothing. This is the first abduction from a federal university, in the home of the minister of state for defence,” he said.
Yusuf lamented that “There are former governors, ministers and groups of people, the Fulani from the North East going into Zamfara for all the negotiations.
“There is no coordination at all. They go to the forest and we are told that these guys have come. It takes time to earn the trust of these bad guys in the forest. People come from Abuja and they sit down, and the other person you didn’t go to thinks you have given these guys money.
“All these misguided and disjointed negotiations are what caused the abduction of the Zamfara University girls. The person who went and took those girls felt slighted; he felt he was not consulted and he did this nonsense.
It was gathered that while the various teams engaged with different groups of bandits, the alleged kingpin that abducted the female students was not approached. He, therefore, led his supporters to the hostel near the university and adjoining houses, during which they abducted an unspecified number of students and locals.
WikkiTimes had reported that gunmen suspected to be bandits abducted an unspecified number of students of the Federal University Gusau on September 21.
A week after the abduction, the total number of students kidnapped by the terrorists from the university has not been verified as neither the federal government nor the Zamfara State Government spoke on what actually happened.
However, the federal government, denied initiating negotiations with bandits in its response to Governor Dauda Lawal of the state who earlier accused the Aso Rock Villa of secretly meeting with bandits in the state without his knowledge.
WikkiTimes has earlier reported that two security sources who requested anonymity for safety and authorisation purposes said the largest meeting with the bandits was held in Fankama, a community in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State.
